All 1 Debates between Lord Bridges of Headley and Lord Bishop of Chester

Algorithmic Trading

Debate between Lord Bridges of Headley and Lord Bishop of Chester
Monday 6th July 2015

(9 years, 4 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Bridges of Headley Portrait Lord Bridges of Headley
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My Lords, I am certainly not complacent. The noble Lord raises a good point, and I reiterate that the Government take the matter of regulating financial markets in their entirety very seriously and closely follow developments in these markets. As I said, investment firms and trading venues should ensure that robust measures are in place to prevent automated trading creating a disorderly market and being used for abusive purposes. The new rules under MiFID II will ensure that such measures are in place.

Lord Bishop of Chester Portrait The Lord Bishop of Chester
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My Lords, I am a bear of little brain in relation to algo-whatever-it-is trading, and I speak as a fool. However, would this not all be solved if there was a rule that if you bought shares, you had to keep them for more than a few nanoseconds—maybe a few minutes?

Lord Bridges of Headley Portrait Lord Bridges of Headley
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The right reverend Prelate makes an interesting point. I refer him to the excellent Foresight report, which says that,

“liquidity, as measured by bid-ask spreads”—

I will test him on that later—

“and other metrics, has improved”.