The Post-Human Turn of Accounting: Capital Market Efficiency with the Rise of Robo-Trading

19 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2018 Last revised: 7 Jul 2020

See all articles by Rachel F. Baskerville

Rachel F. Baskerville

Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka - School of Accounting and Commercial Law

Date Written: December 5, 2017

Abstract

It is the objective of this report to encourage accounting researchers to undertake further analysis concerning:

1. The significance of the adoption of robo-trading to market efficiency. There is a depth of research on robo-trading and market efficiency from computer scientists and engineers, but in many cases, these results are orthogonal to results from finance and accounting capital markets researchers. Three findings discussed in this study are: 1) that the ‘many eyes’ of the strategies triggered by robo-trading algorithms may result in crowd trends outside of the trading rationality triggered by each algorithm. 2) contrary to the aspirations of regulatory entities, ‘dark’ unregulated markets may demonstrate more efficiencies than more regulated markets. 3) care has to be exercised with the diverse meaning of the term ‘efficient’ in reported findings of a range of studies, as the meanings diverge.

2. What accounting should we teach our students and for which environment are we preparing our students when they leave university and step into employment which is completely computer-based? One certainty here is that double entry retains a core relevancy in both cloud and block-chain computing.

As described by Rosi Braidotti “Post-human embodiment is written into the cash-nexus: cyberspace is a highly contested social space that exists parallel to increasingly complex social realities. The clearest exemplification of the social powers of these technologies is the flow of money through computer-governed stock exchanges that always work and never sleep, the world over. This flow of pure data spells the decline of the master narratives of modernism. The post-human turn of accounting offers an almost boundless expansion of accounting research into different worlds of meanings, predictabilities and rationalities of the sense-creating algorithms of robo-trading. And getting our graduates best-prepared for a new world of post-human accounting also merits on-going accounting education research and a considerable rethink by professional bodies.

Keywords: post-human, algorithmic trading, robo-trading, accounting education

JEL Classification: G1, G14, M00, M41

Suggested Citation

Baskerville, Rachel F., The Post-Human Turn of Accounting: Capital Market Efficiency with the Rise of Robo-Trading (December 5, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3099978 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3099978

Rachel F. Baskerville (Contact Author)

Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka - School of Accounting and Commercial Law ( email )

Faculty of Commerce and Administration
PO Box 600
Wellington
New Zealand
006444636951 (Phone)
006444635076 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/sacl/staff/rachel-baskerville.aspx

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