High-Speed Trader Accused of Commodity Market ‘Spoofing’

Yezzir. Legalized manipulation. Just because it is legal doesn't mean it is right

Get rid of all hft companies

I wonder why doing the same for stocks doesnt lead to prision time also.

No effect if you don't trade Lower Time Frame

Many years ago, when I was day trading equities, large block "spoofing" was commonplace, and I don't imagine the tactic has gone out of style since then. This is why, as a trader, I never paid much attention to market depth and bid/ask order size; you simply never knew whether these were serious orders or whether some greedy little prick was going to pull the rug out at the last moment, causing a short-term cascade as the barrier was suddenly removed. Consequently, I never relied upon short-term market depth or the existence of a market mover large block to inform my decisions; price action was and is still king, regardless of these micro-movement shenanigans from which certain traders make millions because they are trading millions and making the market move millimeters.

Personally, I think it is incredibly naive for anyone to rely upon the existence or placement of a large block order at any time to inform a trading decision. That large block could move or evaporate at any moment if the trader gets cold feet as to the position or just wants to move it to either reduce risk or increase profit in light of emerging market conditions. I mean, geez, how many times have you moved a stop to lock in greater gains?

This tactic is now illegal due to post financial crash laws and regulations if it can be shown that there was no intent to ever allow the order to execute.

A cursory reading of this particular section of Dodd-Frank (which, as I recall, also took away hedging from and imposed FIFO on Americans) is that it would also apply to the "spoofing" of equities.