Algorithmic trading: the use of programs and computers to generate and execute (large) orders in markets with electronic access.
Orders come from institutional investors, hedge funds and Wall Street trading desks
The main objective of algo trading is not necessarily to maximize profits but rather to control execution costs and market risk.
Algorithms started as tools for institutional investors in the beginning of the 1990s. Decimalization, direct market access (DMA), 100% electronic exchanges, reduction of commissions and exchange fees, rebates, the creation of new markets aside from NYSE and NASDAQ and Reg NMS led to an explosion of algorithmic trading and the beginning of the decade. Today, brokers compete actively for the commission pool associated with algorithmic trading around the globe – a business estimated at USD 400 to 600 million per year.
Algorithmic trading