Overall high frequency trading firms' rank |
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Source: Euromoney FX Survey |
Euromoney says: Banks’ uncertain relationships with high frequency traders can immediately be seen in the volume and market share rankings of the leading banks in this sector. The HFT sector would appear to be getting more competitive, with leader Citigroup’s market share falling from a high of 33% last year to 18.7% this, with UBS hot on its heels. The biggest riser is Bank of America Merrill Lynch, whose share of the HFT market has grown from less than 1% in 2012 to more than 15% in 2015.
Dealing with HFTs divides opinion and strategies in FX. It’s a market driven purely by price, and therefore provides little in the way of profit. But it does provide flow. Others see it as simply outsourcing liquidity to other providers.
The question is whether you need that flow to match prices for transactional clients. Deutsche Bank clearly does not think it has to: while it’s never been a leader in HFT, its market share drops to little more than 1% of the market this year.