IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ajf/louvlr/2021017.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mini flash crashes: Review, taxonomy and policy responses

Author

Listed:
  • Laly, Floris

    (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/LFIN, Belgium)

  • Petitjean, Mikael

    (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/LFIN, Belgium)

Abstract

We focus on extreme price movements known as mini flash crashes (MFCs). After reviewing the literature, we provide a taxonomy based on a sample of MFCs identified by Nanex on the U.S. financial markets over a three-year period. We detect significant differences between crashes and exchanges. In comparison to ‘up crashes’, we find that ‘down crashes’ exhibit lower absolute returns but have longer duration. We also show that the dynamics of MCFs varies across exchanges. For example, the MFCs on ARCA are on average both less severe and shorter in duration than those on the NASDAQ. We finally review all the key implications of MCFs in terms of public policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Laly, Floris & Petitjean, Mikael, 2021. "Mini flash crashes: Review, taxonomy and policy responses," LIDAM Reprints LFIN 2021017, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    • Handle: RePEc:ajf:louvlr:2021017
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/boer.12221
    Note: In: Bulletin of Economic Research, 2020, vol. 72(3), p. 251-271
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Didier SORNETTE & Susanne VON DER BECKE, 2011. "Crashes and High Frequency Trading," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 11-63, Swiss Finance Institute.
    2. Carole Gresse, 2017. "Effects of Lit and Dark Market Fragmentation on Liquidity," Post-Print hal-01631771, HAL.
    3. Neil Johnson & Guannan Zhao & Eric Hunsader & Jing Meng & Amith Ravindar & Spencer Carran & Brian Tivnan, 2012. "Financial black swans driven by ultrafast machine ecology," Papers 1202.1448, arXiv.org.
    4. James Brugler & Oliver Linton, 2014. "Circuit Breakers on the London Stock Exchange: Do they improve subsequent market quality?," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1453, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Chakravarty, Sugato & Jain, Pankaj & Upson, James & Wood, Robert, 2012. "Clean Sweep: Informed Trading through Intermarket Sweep Orders," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 415-435, April.
    6. Anton Golub & John Keane & Ser-Huang Poon, 2012. "High Frequency Trading and Mini Flash Crashes," Papers 1211.6667, arXiv.org.
    7. Brogaard, Jonathan & Carrion, Allen & Moyaert, Thibaut & Riordan, Ryan & Shkilko, Andriy & Sokolov, Konstantin, 2018. "High frequency trading and extreme price movements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(2), pages 253-265.
    8. James Brugler & Oliver Linton, 2014. "Single stock circuit breakers on the London Stock Exchange: do they improve subsequent market quality?," CeMMAP working papers CWP07/14, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Kim Christensen & Roel Oomen & Roberto Renò, 2018. "The drift burst hypothesis," CREATES Research Papers 2018-21, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    10. Brolley, Michael & Cimon, David A., 2020. "Order-Flow Segmentation, Liquidity, and Price Discovery: The Role of Latency Delays," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(8), pages 2555-2587, December.
    11. Terrence Hendershott & Charles M. Jones & Albert J. Menkveld, 2011. "Does Algorithmic Trading Improve Liquidity?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 1-33, February.
    12. Bellia, Mario & Christensen, Kim & Kolokolov, Aleksey & Pelizzon, Loriana & Renò, Roberto, 2022. "Do designated market makers provide liquidity during a flash crash?," SAFE Working Paper Series 270, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2022.
    13. Lee, Suzanne S. & Mykland, Per A., 2012. "Jumps in equilibrium prices and market microstructure noise," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 168(2), pages 396-406.
    14. Didier SORNETTE & Susanne VON DER BECKE, 2011. "Crashes and High Frequency Trading," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 11-64, Swiss Finance Institute.
    15. Gresse, Carole, 2017. "Effects of lit and dark market fragmentation on liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-20.
    16. Sandeep Patel & Asani Sarkar, 1998. "Stock market crises in developed and emerging markets," Research Paper 9809, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    17. Tom McInish & James Upson & Robert A. Wood, 2014. "The Flash Crash: Trading Aggressiveness, Liquidity Supply, and the Impact of Intermarket Sweep Orders," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 49(3), pages 481-509, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Steffen, Viktoria, 2023. "A literature review on extreme price movements with reversal," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    2. Leal, Sandrine Jacob & Napoletano, Mauro, 2019. "Market stability vs. market resilience: Regulatory policies experiments in an agent-based model with low- and high-frequency trading," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 15-41.
    3. Suchismita Mishra & Le Zhao, 2021. "Order Routing Decisions for a Fragmented Market: A Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-32, November.
    4. Sandrine Jacob Leal & Mauro Napoletano, 2017. "Market Stability vs. Market Resilience: Regulatory Policies Experiments in an Agent-Based Model with Low- and High-Frequency Trading," Post-Print hal-01768876, HAL.
    5. Sandrine Jacob Leal & Mauro Napoletano & Andrea Roventini & Giorgio Fagiolo, 2016. "Rock around the clock: An agent-based model of low- and high-frequency trading," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 49-76, March.
    6. Benjamin Clapham & Martin Haferkorn & Kai Zimmermann, 2023. "The Impact of High-Frequency Trading on Modern Securities Markets," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 65(1), pages 7-24, February.
    7. Hatheway, Frank & Kwan, Amy & Zheng, Hui, 2017. "An Empirical Analysis of Market Segmentation on U.S. Equity Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(6), pages 2399-2427, December.
    8. Cox, Justin & Woods, Donovan, 2023. "COVID-19 and market structure dynamics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    9. Banerjee, Anirban & Nawn, Samarpan, 2024. "Proprietary algorithmic traders and liquidity supply during the pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    10. Chakrabarty, Bidisha & Cox, Justin & Upson, James E., 2022. "Tick Size Pilot Program and price discovery in U.S. stock markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).
    11. Ligot, Stephanie & Gillet, Roland & Veryzhenko, Iryna, 2021. "Intraday volatility smile: Effects of fragmentation and high frequency trading on price efficiency," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Klein, Olga & Song, Shiyun, 2021. "Commonality in intraday liquidity and multilateral trading facilities: Evidence from Chi-X Europe," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    13. Mark Paddrik & Roy Hayes & William Scherer & Peter Beling, 2017. "Effects of limit order book information level on market stability metrics," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 12(2), pages 221-247, July.
    14. Pelizzon, Loriana & Sagade, Satchit & Vozian, Katia, 2020. "Resiliency: Cross-venue dynamics with Hawkes processes," SAFE Working Paper Series 291, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    15. Gbenga Ibikunle & Davide Mare & Yuxin Sun, 2020. "The paradoxical effects of market fragmentation on adverse selection risk and market efficiency," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(14), pages 1439-1461, September.
    16. Кравчук, Ігор Святославович, 2018. "Сучасні тенденції електронної торгівлі обіговими фінансовими інструментами // Modern trends of electronic trading by negotiable financial instruments," Вісник Житомирського державного технологічного університету. Серія: Економічні науки // THE JOURNAL OF ZHYTOMYR STATE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY. SERIES: ECONOMICS, Житомирський державний технологічний університет // ZHYTOMYR STATE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, vol. 83(1).
    17. Nikolsko-Rzhevska, Olena & Nikolsko-Rzhevskyy, Alex & Black, Jeffrey R., 2020. "The life of U’s: Order revisions on NASDAQ," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    18. Clapham, Benjamin & Gomber, Peter & Lausen, Jens & Panz, Sven, 2021. "Liquidity provider incentives in fragmented securities markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 16-38.
    19. Gianluca Piero Maria Virgilio, 2019. "High-frequency trading: a literature review," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 33(2), pages 183-208, June.
    20. Jagannathan, Ravi & Pelizzon, Loriana & Schaumburg, Ernst & Sherman, Mila Getmansky & Yuferova, Darya, 2022. "Recovery from fast crashes: Role of mutual funds," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mini flash crash; extreme price movement; high frequency trading; liquidity; policy responses; financial stability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ajf:louvlr:2021017. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Séverine De Visscher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lfuclbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.