As I recall from recent figures the level of automated trading in OZ is between 40 and 50%, can't recall the exact number. In the US it is above 70%. I wrote and complained about the practices to both the responsible federal minister and ASIC a few years back and was told that there was no evidence of any detrimental impact and in fact it was positive in that it aided price discovery and improved liquidity. I also complained about dark pools and was told it wasn't a problem at the time.
Of course this is rubbish and even more so the changes in the brokerage structure from every transaction to cumulative volume charges bred the whole practice. The federal government should bring back single transaction brokerage or a transaction tax which would stop the practices dead or at least mitigate them.
By the way wahtever anyone migh think of Senator Jackie Lambie she wants to bring in a transaction tax on all stock transactions to solve the budget deficit and put the brakes an algo/HFT trading. Good for her.
AJX Price at posting:
79.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
