Who Provides Liquidity and When?
54 Pages Posted: 21 Jan 2017 Last revised: 8 Jun 2020
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Who Provides Liquidity and When?
Who Provides Liquidity, and When?
Date Written: May 26, 2020
Abstract
We model competition for liquidity provision between high-frequency traders (HFTs) and slower execution algorithms (EAs) designed to minimize investors’ transaction costs. Under continuous pricing, EAs dominate liquidity provision by using aggressive limit orders to stimulate HFTs’ market orders. Under discrete pricing, HFTs dominate liquidity provision if the bid-ask spread is binding at one tick. If the tick size (minimum price variation) is not binding, EAs choose between stimulating HFTs and providing liquidity to non-HFTs. Transaction costs increase with the tick size but can be negatively correlated with the bid-ask spread when all traders can provide liquidity.
Keywords: Algorithmic trading, High-frequency trading, Liquidity, Tick Size
JEL Classification: G10, G20
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation