Blume and Goldstein [Journal of Finance 52, 1997, 221-244] suggest that quote competition between trading venues may diminish following tick size reductions. We test this suggestion by studying the competitive landscape in the NYSE-listed stocks before and after decimalization. We find that NBBO...

The study investigates competition in the market for NASDAQ stocks during a recent period in U.S. equity markets history when three major ECNs - Archipelago, Island, and Instinet - are identifiable in TAQ. We show that the ECNs compete with NASDAQ's SuperMontage on the basis of quotes, execution...

The institutional brokerage industry faces ever increasing pressure to lower trading costs, which has already driven down average commissions and shifted volume towards low-cost execution venues. However, traditional full-service brokers that bundle execution with services remain a force and...

The study investigates competition in the market for NASDAQ stocks during a recent period in U.S. equity markets history when three major ECNs - Archipelago, Island, and Instinet - are identifiable in TAQ. We show that the ECNs compete with NASDAQ's SuperMontage on the basis of quotes, execution...

Why do brokers charge per-share commissions to institutional traders? What determines the commission charge? We examine commissions and order flow for a sample of institutional orders and find that most per-share commissions are concentrated at only a few price points, primarily 5 and 6 cents...

Modern physics has demonstrated that matter behaves very differently as it approaches the speed of light. This paper explores the implications of modern physics to the operation and regulation of financial markets. Information cannot move faster than the speed of light. The geographic separation...

This paper provides evidence on the benefits of faster proprietary data feeds from stock exchanges over the regulated “public” consolidated data feeds. We measure and compare the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) prices in each data feed at the same data center. Price dislocations between...

We survey empirical studies on the development and effects of increased computerization across equity, foreign exchange, derivatives, and fixed-income markets. While the changes in the trading process due to computerization in less liquid markets such as the corporate bond market have been...