Can Brokers Have It All?
Transcript of Can Brokers Have It All?
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4 December 2013
Can Brokers Have it all?
On the Relation between Make Take
Fees & Limit Order Execution Quality.
by Robert Battalio, Shane Corwin, and Robert Jennings
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Average depth when al lare at the inside quote:
1stfive days of October 2012
Where are queues the shortest?
Where will an executed limit order generate the highest liquidity rebate?
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
NDAQ
$0.30$0.29
ARCA
$0.30$0.30
EDGX
$0.30$0.32
BZX
$0.29$0.29
NYSE
$0.23$0.21
BYX
- $0.02-$0.03
EDGA
- $0.04-$0.06
BSX
- $0.14- $0.18
Shares
Take Fee:Make Rebate:
Where is it cheapest to access displayed liquidity?
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When were fees explicitly introduced to
markets?
1997 Order Handling Rules.
The quotes displayed on computerized limit order books (think ECNs) were
incorporated into the public quotation system.
To attract liquidity onto their limit order books, ECNs and Nasdaq beganoffering liquidity rebates to reward market participants for placing non-
marketable orders on their limit order book.
These rebates were funded by charging incoming marketable orders a fee for
taking liquidity.
This is the traditional make/takemodel.
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The regulation of take fees.
Rule 610 of Regulation NMS (circa 2005) limits take fees to$0.003/share.
Why limit take fees?
Regulation NMS prohibits trading through the quotes of other markets.
Incentive to post bid price of $0.00 with a take fee of $1,000,000 per share.
Rule 610 is intended to preserve the integrity of the quote.
Why not simply post net prices on the real line???
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Who cares?
The Investment Company Institutes members, whomanaged over $11 trillion of assets and held 28% of
the value of publicly traded U.S. equity outstanding at
the end of 2009.
we are concerned that brokers may refrain from posting limit orders
on a particular exchange because it offers lower liquidity rebates than
other markets, even though that exchange offers the best possibil i ty of
an execution for those limit orders. Practices such as these, in turn,
may ultimately harm investors because their limit orders may not beexecuted. At the same time, it is unclear what benefits liquidity rebates
provide to investors. (emphasis added)
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What is the Investment Company Institute
saying?
1. Brokers may be more concerned about harvesting rebates than
they are about obtaining best execution for customer orders.
The classical principal/agent problem.
2. This type of order routing results in inferior limit order
execution quality.
3. Competition and transparency cannot fix this problem.
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1. Would brokers really do this?
Chris Nagy, Wall Streets most sophisticated order sender
Traders Magazine.
The group Nagy heads endowed Ameritrade with the ability
to separate marketable and non-marketable order flow.
It sends its market orders to wholesalers and receives payments.
it began sending its limit orders to exchangesto take advantage of their
rebatesfrom maker-taker pricing.
In splitting its order flow, Ameritrade could improve its revenues by taking
advantage of maker-taker pricing at the exchanges and still get paid for sending
order flow to the wholesalers.
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2. Are standing limit orders harmed (1 of 4)?
Suppose there are two order books at the National Best Bid (NBB)
for Pudgys Chicken common stock.
EDGX EDGANBB $10.24 $10.24
Make Rebate:
Take Fee:
+ $0.0023 - $0.0004
+ $0.0029 - $0.0005
Does the order routing decision matter?
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Are standing limit orders harmed (2 of 4)?
Scenario 1:
Negative earnings news is announced. Market sell orders push
the market price for PudgysChicken down to $9.99 bid and
$10.01 offered.
Both limit buy orders execute.
Both limit buy orders have negative realized spreads (five minute alphas).
In this situation, execution happens regardless of where the order is sent
you might as well receive a high rebate.
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2. Are standing limit orders harmed (3 of 4)?
Scenario 2:
A fee-sensitive investor routes a marketable sell order to EDGA
and trades with the standing limit order. Subsequently, buying
pressure pushes the market for PudgysChicken to $10.49 bid
and $10.51 offered.
Only one limit buy order executes.
The executed limit order generates a positive realized spread.
In this situation, the limit order resting on the venue with the higherliquidity rebate (and higher take fee) misses out on a profitable trading
opportunity.
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2. Are standing limit orders harmed (4 of 4)?
Scenario 3:
A marketable sell order is routed to EDGX instead of EDGAbecause of faster connections and/or the expectation of greater non-
displayed liquidity (e.g., price/depth improvement). Subsequently,buying pressure pushes the market for PudgysChicken to $10.49 bid
and $10.51 offered.
Only one limit order executes.
The executed limit order generates a positive realized spread.
In this situation, the limit order resting on the venue with the higher
liquidity rebate (and higher take fee) received a favorable execution and
received the liquidity rebate!
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3. Why cant Adam Smith fix this?
Brokers only get commissions when limit orders execute. Why
wouldnt brokers seek high fill rates rather than high rebates?
Big agency problem - Angel, Harris, and Spatt (2010).
Hard for investors to evaluate limit order execution quality.
Easy for investors to shop based on commissions.
Brokers that seek to maximize order rebates can offer the lowest commissions.
Investors cannot see that paying a higher commission might actually make
them better off.
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Our contribution
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What do BCJ do? (2 of 3)
Limit order execution quality metrics for orders
Fill rates & queue lengthsOn which venue are limit orders executed most
frequently?
HorseracesFor identical orders routed to multiple venues, we examine where
orders are executed first.
Conditional on an execution
Execution speed - Where are limit orders executed more quickly?
Realized spreads & good fill ratiosWhich venue offers limit order
executions the largest five minute alpha? On which venue are adverse
selection costs the greatest?
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What do BCJ do? (3 of 3)
We use proprietary limit order data and the NYSEs TAQ data from
October and November 2012 to address these issues.
Overall, we present strong evidence that venues with high take fees
(liquidity rebates) offer inferior limit order execution quality.
This suggests brokers cannot have it all.
Brokers must either choose to maximize liquidity rebates or to
maximize limit order execution quality.
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Literature review
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Literature Review (as it pertains to our paper)
Academic (publicly available data)
Foucault and Menkveld (2008) & Cardella, Cao and Kalcheva (2013)
Fee schedules are a primary determinant of where marketable
orders are routed.
Practitioner (proprietary data)
Sofianos and Yousefi (2010), Sofianos, Xiang, and Yousefi (2010), &
Bacidore, Otero and Vasa (2011)
Evidence suggests routing decisions (influenced by fee schedules)
affects execution quality.
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Broker order routing in 4Q12.
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Order Routing (1 of 6) SEC rule 606 requires brokers to reveal on a quarterlybasis
the destinations to which they route non-directed orders and
whether they receive compensation for their routing choices.
Any venue receiving less than 5% of the brokers orders does not have
to be revealed on the brokers 606 report.
Thus, percentages need not sum to 100.
We collect 4Q2012 Rule 606 reports for ten national brokerages
appearing in either Barrons or Smart Moneys 2012 Broker Surveys
from broker websites.
We present results for routing in NYSE-listed securities.
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Order Routing (2 of 6)
Five brokers route 100% of their order flow to
purchasers of order flow: Schwab, Morgan Stanley,Just2Trade, Edward Jones, and LowTrade.
Limit orders routed to any of these brokers have an opportunity to
interact with both the brokers and the purchasers marketable orderflow. Manning rules are intact.
Purchasers pay brokers less for order flow they cannot interact with.
Thus, this type of order routing does not, on the surface, appear to
be consistent with the objective of maximizing order flow
payments.
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Order Routing (3 of 6)
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Venue
Make/Take
Order
Mix Ameritrade E*Trade Fidelity ScottTrade
EDGX
$0.32/-$0.30
% Mkt 0% 0% 0% 0%
% Lmt 49% 46% 28% 28%
Lava
$0.27/-$0.28
% Mkt 0% 0% 0% 0%
% Lmt 0% 0% 0% 51%
Purchasers
$0.00/
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Order Routing (4 of 6)
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Venue
Take Fee
Order
Mix
Interactive
Brokers
Nasdaq
$0.30% Lmt 7%
NYSEs Arca Exchange
$0.30% Lmt 23%
Bats Z Exchange
$0.29 % Lmt 14%
NYSE (vintage)
$0.23% Lmt 47%
Uses a smart order router
and passes fees/rebates
onto customers
Traditional venue with lowest take fee
Why no inverted
routing?
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Order Routing (5 of 6)
Retail Limit Orders Institutional Limit Orders
Direct Edge 30.45% 9.91%
Nasdaq 0.00% 11.28%
BATS 0.00% 15.02%
NYSE 0.00% 22.49%
Citadel (wholesaler) 9.72% 0.08%
Goldman 3.37% 1.71%
NFS (wholesaler) 19.19% 27.04%
Knight (wholesaler) 21.36% 1.12%UBS (wholesaler) 5.72 0.75%
Two Sigma (wholesaler) 2.79% 0.00%
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Fidelitys non-directed limit order routing in 3Q2013
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Analysis of proprietary limit orderdata.
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Data
We obtain limit order data from a major broker-dealers smart
order routing system for October and November 2012.
The orders in the sample are from customers, primarily
institutional investors.
Orders included are those routed through the broker-dealers
algorithmic trading system and orders entered directly by
customers.
25thpercentile and median order size is 100 shares. 75th
percentile order size is 300 shares. The median (75thpercentile)
order displays 0 (100) shares.
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Where are orders sent?
28Unfortunately, not many orders are routed to the inverted venues.
VenueTake Fee
Min/Max
Displayed Order
Make Rebate
Hidden Order
Make Rebate
% of Displayed
Orders
(N=10,392,317)
% of Hidden
Orders
(N=17,829,197)
EDGX $0.29/$0.30 +$0.23/+$0.32 +$0.23 29.72% 31.97%
NDAQ $0.30/$0.30 +$0.20/+$0.29 +$0.10 23.84% 39.76%
ARCA $0.30/$0.30 +$0.21/+$0.30 +$0.21 12.61% 11.36%
BZX $0.29/$0.29 -$0.25/+$0.29 -$0.10 5.26% 2.15%
NYSE $0.23/$0.23 +$0.15/+$0.21 +$0.15 26.72% 14.46%
EDGA -$0.04/-$0.04 -$0.06/-$0.05 -$0.06 0.20% 0.00%
BSX -$0.14/-$0.14 -$0.18/-$0.15 -$0.18 1.65% 0.30%
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Order outcomes
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Fill Status # of Orders Rejected Replaced Cancelled One Fill Expired
No Fill 17,455,297 1,681 117,895 15,853,841 n.a. 1,481,880
Complete 10,231,469 0 8 53,083 7,964,586 n.a.
Partial Fill 534,748 1 107 524,757 349,482 9,883
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Order aggressiveness
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Limit Order Type Buy Orders Sell Orders
Behind-the-quote 14.90% 12.32%
At-the-Quote 30.74% 29.76%
Inside-the-Quote 5.48% 5.24%
Marketable 0.65% 1.04%
Limit Order TypeDisplay Choice
Hidden Partially or Fully Displayed
Behind-the-quote 32.21% 18.56%
At-the-Quote 58.84% 63.34%
Inside-the-Quote 7.19% 16.77%
Marketable 1.88% 1.38%
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Probit analysis of limit order fill rates (1 of 2)
Fill = 0+ 1Sell + 2Short Sell + 3Display + 4Moneyness + 5Trading Intensity +
6Price + 7Volatility + 8Seconds from Mid-day + 9Mean Response Time +10Order Size + 11Take Fee + 12(Display)(Take Fee) +
Caveats:
Control variables are created within sample from actual orders. Wecan/will do a much better job of this in next version of paper. We dont
think things will change.
Hypothesis: The probability that a displayed limit order fills is decreasing
in an exchanges take fee.
(11+ 12) < 0
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Probit analysis of limit order fill rates (2 of 2)
Results:
A limit order is more likely to execute if i t is
displayed, small, aggressively priced, and if it is placed on a
venue with faster connections to our broker.
in a less volatile, less active stocks. Endogeneity???
displayed on a venue with a lower take fee.
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OLS analysis of limit order time-to-execution (1 of 2)
Speed = 0+ 1Sell + 2Short Sell + 3Display + 4Moneyness + 5Trading Intensity +
6Price + 7Volatility + 8Seconds from Mid-day + 9Mean Response Time +10Order Size + 11Take Fee + 12(Display)(Take Fee) +
Caveats:
Control variables are created within sample from actual orders. Wecan/will do a much better job of this in next version of paper. We dont
think things will change.
Hypothesis: The time-to-execution for displayed venues is increasing in the
size of the take fee.
(11+ 12) < 0
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OLS analysis of limit order time-to-execution (2 of 2)
Results:
Time-to-execution is shorter for limit orders that are
displayed, small, aggressively priced, and if it is placed on a
venue with faster connections to our broker.
in more volatile, more active stocks.
routed to venues with lower take fees.
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Horseraces (1 of 2)
We identify order-pairs that have the same stock symbol, order
date, order side (buy or sell), limit price, order time (to withinone millisecond), but different destination venues.
By construction, these paired orders control for stock characteristics
and market conditions.
For each pair of identical orders routed to different venues, we
conduct a horserace to determine which venue (if either) seems
to perform better.
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EDGX vs. the NYSE (1 of 3)
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All Order Pairs # of Order
Pairs
% Both
Fill
Difference in
Time to 1stFill1stVenue
(take fee)
2ndVenue
(take fee)
EDGX
($0.30)
NYSE
($0.23)258 14.34 1.01
NYSE
($0.23)
EDGX
($0.30)461 9.33 57.91
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EDGX vs. the NYSE (2 of 3)
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Order Pair # of Order
Pairs
% 1stVenue
Trades First
% 2ndVenue
Trades First% Tie1stVenue
(take fee)
2ndVenue
(take fee)
EDGX
($0.30)
NYSE
($0.23)
258 10.08 82.56 7.36
NYSE
($0.23)
EDGX
($0.30)461 91.32 3.47 5.21
Takeaway:Roughly 5% of the horseraces end in a tie (it didntmatter where the order was routed). When it did matter, the
NYSE offered the first fill muchmore frequently.
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EDGX vs. the NYSE (3 of 3)
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Takeaway:A higher percentage of executions produce positiverealized spreads on the NYSE. However, the median realized
spread is positive on both the NYSE and on EDGX.
Order Pair Good Fill Ratio
1stVenue
(take fee)
2ndVenue
(take fee)1stVenue 2ndVenue
EDGX
($0.30)
NYSE
($0.23)51.79 58.78
NYSE
($0.23)
EDGX
($0.30)65.72 55.36
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Horseraces involving all orders that do not end in ties.
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23.59%
68.35%64.02%
54.45%
60.01%
68.78%
93.79%
99.74%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
BZX vs ARCAFee Diff = $0.01
N = 1,433
BZX vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.01
N = 9,811
BZX vs EDGXFee Diff = $0.01
N = 24,309
NYSE vs BZXFee Diff = $0.06
N = 2,637
NYSE vs ARCAFee Diff = $0.07
N = 550
NYSE vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.07
N = 51,240
NYSE vs EDGXFee Diff = $0.07
N = 676
BSX vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.44
N = 3,128
% of horseraces wonby low fee venue
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Horseraces involving all displayedorders that do not
end in ties.
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85.30%81.04%
71.95%
51.27%
65.77%69.88%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
BZX vs ARCAFee Diff = $0.01
N = 170
BZX vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.01
N = 327
BZX vs EDGXFee Diff = $0.01
N = 2,934
NYSE vs BZXFee Diff = $0.06
N = 310
NYSE vs ARCAFee Diff = $0.07
N = 149
NYSE vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.07
N = 1,604
% of horseraces wonby low fee venue
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What does it mean to win a set of
horseraces?
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Horseraces involving all orders that do not end in ties.
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-0.39%
2.15%
0.26%
2.92% 2.73% 2.72%
9.15%
11.03%
-2%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
BZX vs ARCAFee Diff = $0.01
N = 1,433
BZX vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.01
N = 9,811
BZX vs EDGXFee Diff = $0.01
N = 24,309
NYSE vs BZXFee Diff = $0.06
N = 2,637
NYSE vs ARCAFee Diff = $0.07
N = 550
NYSE vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.07
N = 51,240
NYSE vs EDGXFee Diff = $0.07
N = 676
BSX vs NDAQFee Diff = $0.44
N = 3,128
Difference in good fill ratios.
Difference is positive if low fee venue
has a higher good fill ratio
Summary of results obtained from proprietary
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Summary of results obtained from proprietary
data. (1 of 2)
Univariate statistics suggest a negative relation between take fees and fill ratesand between take fees and realized spreads.
Multivariate probit analysis reveals that for displayed orders, there is a negative
relationship between take fees and limit order fill rates.
OLS regression analysis confirms that limit orders resting on venues with high
take fees require more time to fill than those on venues with lower take fees.
Our examination of identical order pairs simultaneously routed to different
venues under identicalmarket conditions reveals that for take fee differencesexceeding $0.0001 per share, the lower take fee venue has higher measured
limit order execution quality.
Summary of results obtained from
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Summary of results obtained from
proprietary data. (2 of 2)
Our results suggest the decision to route the bulk of ones limit
orders to a singlevenueoffering the highest liquidity rebate is
inconsistent with a brokers fiduciary responsibility to obtain
best execution.
Shortcomings of our analysis of proprietary
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Shortcomings of our analysis of proprietary
data.
The executed limit orders in our dataset are from a singlebroker and theycomprise about 1.5% of average daily volume.
Our data do not span the thirteen U.S. stock exchanges that utilize make-
take or inverted make-take fee schedules.
Specifically, our data provider uses inverted venues somewhat
sparingly.
Our proprietary data do not allow us to examine the types of
stocks/situations in which the routing of limit orders to venues withrelatively high take fees does not harm limit order execution quality.
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Using the NYSE TAQ database to makeinferences regarding across-venue limit
order execution quality.
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Wh t b d ith TAQ? (1 f 3)
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What can be done with TAQ? (1 of 3)
TAQ data can be used to determine whether fees influence
where marketable orders (as evidenced by trades) execute whenmultiple venues have the best posted quote.
Based on the analysis in the prior section, we expect that venues with
lower or negative take fees receive a larger share of marketable orders
than venues with high take fees when all venues display the best quote.
Unless the three venues charging take fees of $0.30 per hundred always
have the shortest queues when they are at the best quote or the market
alwaysexhausts the depth at posted quotes, such a finding would suggest
that brokers seeking to obtain best execution for customer limit orders
should not route 100% of their limit orders to a single high take fee venue.
Wh t b d ith TAQ? (2 f 3)
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What can be done with TAQ? (2 of 3)
TAQ data can be used to compute the realized spreads of
executions that take place at the quoted price when each of therelevant trading venues is posting the best quote.
Assuming these quotes are set by limit orders, we can examine
the association between take fees (make rebates) and the
execution quality of executedlimit orders.
Do limit orders resting on venues with higher take fees face
higher adverse selection costs because they tend to be the last
to trade at a price?
Wh t b d ith TAQ? (3 f 3)
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What can be done with TAQ? (3 of 3)
We can also examine the extent to which across-venue
differences in limit order execution quality dissipate when
fees/rebates are incorporated into realized spreads.
We might expect the all in cost of limit order trading (e.g., the
implementation shortfall) to equilibrate across venues.
Investors must chase the market to ultimately satisfy their trading
interests when limit orders are unfilled. Implementation shortfall
captures this cost.
This does not imply that fee-adjusted realized spreads should
equilibrate across venues.
How restrictive is our focus on trades executed at
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How restrictive is our focus on trades executed at
the quote when all venues are at the quote?
12.25% of all non-sweep trades in NYSE-listed securities occur at thequote when each of the relevant trading venues is at the inside quote.
The median NYSE stock has 0.24% of its non-sweep trades executed at the
quote when all are at the quote.
Ford is the stock with the highest percentage, 52.23%, of non-sweep trades
executed at the quote when all are at the quote. Ford traded between $9.71
and $10.16 during the 1stweek of October.
Over 99% of the trades executed at the quote when all venues are at the
inside quote occur when the width of the NBBO is equal to $0.01.
M k t h f t d i NYSE li t d iti
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Market share of trades in NYSE-listed securities.(No sweep trades)
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
16.00%
18.00%
NDAQ$0.30
ARCA
$0.30
EDGX
$0.30
BZX
$0.29
NYSE
$0.23
BYX
-$0.02
EDGA
-$0.04
BSX
-$0.14
Unconditional All at inside quote & trade at inside quoteThe NYSE is always at the
inside quoteothers are not.
Internalization?
A d th h ll t th i id t
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Average depth when all are at the inside quote
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
NDAQ
$0.30
ARCA
$0.30
EDGX
$0.30
BZX
$0.29
NYSE
$0.23
BYX-$0.02
EDGA-$0.04
BSX-$0.14
I te et ti
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Interpretation
On average, inverted venues have shorter queues and are at
least as likely to receive marketable orders as the traditional
venues.
Hard to rationalize routing all/mostof your limit orders to a
single traditional venue offering the highest liquidity rebate
(charging the highest take fee) if fees/rebates are not passed
through to investors.
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Unconditional realized spreads in NYSE-listed
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Unconditionalrealized spreads in NYSE-listed
securities. (No sweep trades)
-3
-2
-1
01
2
3
4
5
EDGX
$0.30
ARCA
$0.30
NDAQ
$0.30
BZX
$0.29
NYSE
$0.23
BYX
-$0.02
EDGA
-$0.04
BSX
-$0.14
Avg. realized spread (bps.)
Realized spreads for trades at the quote when all are
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57
Realized spreads for trades at the quote when all are
at the quotein NYSE-listed securities. (No sweep trades)
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
EDGX
$0.30
ARCA
$0.30
NDAQ
$0.30
BZX
$0.29
NYSE
$0.2
3
BYX
-$0.02
EDGA
-$0
.04
BSX
-$0.14
Avg. realized spread (bps.) Avg. realized spread when all are at inside (bps.)
Order flow becomes
more toxic!
Order flow becomesless toxic!
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Interpretation
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Interpretation
On average, at-the-quote limit orders receive more favorable
executions on inverted venues (and the NYSE).
At-the-quote limit orders resting on inverted venues face lower
adverse selection costs.
Indeed, over half of the executed at-the-quote limit orders on the
inverted venues and the NYSE have positive realized spreads!
59
Unconditional conditional and adjusted realized
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60
Unconditional, conditional, and adjusted realized
spreads for trades in NYSE-listed securities. (No sweep trades)
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
EDGX
$0.30
ARCA
$0.30
NDAQ$0.30
BZX
$0.29
NYSE
$0.23
BYX
-$0.02
EDGA
-$0.04
BSX
-$0.14
Avg. realized spread (bps.)
Avg. realized spread when all are at inside (bps.)
Adjusted realized spreads when all are at the inside (bps.)
Unconditional conditional and adjusted realized
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Unconditional, conditional, and adjusted realized
spreads for trades in NYSE-listed securities. (No sweep trades)
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
EDGX
$0.30
ARCA
$0.30
NDAQ$0.30
BZX
$0.29
NYSE
$0.23
BYX
-$0.02
EDGA
-$0.04
BSX
-$0.14
Avg. realized spread (bps.)
Avg. realized spread when all are at inside (bps.)
47%
IBs limit order routing
7% 14%22%
Unconditional conditional and adjusted realized
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62
Unconditional, conditional, and adjusted realized
spreads for trades in NYSE-listed securities. (No sweep trades)
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
EDGX
$0.30
ARCA
$0.30
NDAQ$0.30
BZX
$0.29
NYSE
$0.23
BYX
-$0.02
EDGA
-$0.04
BSX
-$0.14
Avg. realized spread (bps.)
Avg. realized spread when all are at inside (bps.)
22%
Fidelitys institutional limit
order routing
11% 15%
10%
Interpretation
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Interpretation Conditional on an execution, investors who are responsible for the fees/rebates that
their trades generate earn the highest adjusted realized spreads on the NYSE, a
traditional venue.
Apparently, the liquidity on the inverted venues does not absorb all of the good
fills.
Relative to the NYSE, for executed limit orders, thebenefit of gaining net pricepriority on the BSE is, on average, outweighed by the differential in make rebates
(which is at least $0.003/share).
Is why the smart routers used by brokers that pass on fees/rebates do not use the
inverted venues that frequently?
Table VIII reveals the inverted venues spend much less time at the inside quote
than traditional venues.
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Conclusions (1 of 2)
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Conclusions (1 of 2) Several large, national brokerage are making order routing decisions that appear to
be consistent with the goal of maximizing order flow rebates.
Each of these brokers routes limit orders either to a market maker or to a single
traditional venue that pays the highest rebates.
Proprietary data suggests this type of order routing results in lower fill rates
and increased adverse selection costs.
We find similar results using TAQ data.
We have identified situations in which expected fill rates are higher on inverted
venues
Adverse selection costs are highest on the traditional venues.
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Conclusions (2 of 2)
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Conclusions (2 of 2)
Our evidence suggests brokers who do not pass fees/rebates
onto customers cannot have it all.
Maximizing liquidity rebates on executed orders is inconsistent
with obtaining best execution for non-marketable limit orders.