hft or algo trades account for approx 70% of the us market,our markets enjoy considerable activity ,just take note of the difference on a combined usa and euro public holiday ,the pattern of trades and volume change dramatically,while many would argue that hft or algo trading provide liquidity and integrity, the latter is provided by those who have fulltime broker participation to protect stock from attack by rogue players,i think the rogue plays will most likely diminish through legislation ie. the usa and euro,combined with new legal requirements for hedge players and new data exchanges that will enable tracking of orders as opposed to the pooling of institutional orders,unlike most i track the live course of sales looking for patterning and manipulative distortions caused through placement and pulling of orders,its very clear when a usa style play is in place on the asx through the particular style of front running,there has been a noticeable change in activity over the past 2 months and i believe in the main it is a direct result of legislation,so our markets are to a large degree capped at present,even though many companys have enormous cash reserves that are not reflected in their dividend etc.
these are still the days to invest,trading is becoming extremely capital intensive and lets face reality superannuation funds australia and the world over where they invest in open markets, the money has to go somewhere,cash is not an acceptable choice for the long term investor------though i am registered as a trader, by definition that is moving toward longer time frames looking for momentum, of late the small number of trades i have only managed to track the market,so i choose to sit my capital in an lic ,as opposed to individual stock selection ,the mantra being dont lose capital or equality with your index
