Satchit Sagade about the Securities Markets Conference in Milan
| Written by | Dr. Satchit Sagade |  |
| Name of the conference | Securities Markets: Trends, Risks and Policies | |
| Venue | Bocconi University, Milan, Italy | |
| Date | 24 February 2017 | |
| Paper presented | A Tale of One Exchange and Two Order Books: Effects of Fragmentation in the Absence of Competition |
Key Message of my paper
We study the effects of market fragmentation on market performance when competition between exchanges remains unchanged. Such fragmentation has a negative effect on liquidity and price efficiency, is detrimental to investor welfare, and can lead to socially wasteful investment in intermediation capacities
What I noticed
Presentations were organized across three themes: i) Securities and Financial Markets; ii) Financial Institutions and Corporate Finance; iii) Policy session on robo-advice. Conference was very focused and hence allowed for a much more active interaction with colleagues from academia. Participation from the Italian market regulator was also a plus as this allowed for a broader discussion about the topics.
I plan to take a closer look at this paper
"Risk and Return in High-Frequency Trading" (Baron et al., 2016). This is the first paper to examine the competitive landscape of the HFT industry. The authors found that the five fastest HFTs earn substantially higher revenues suggesting that relative speed is a key determinant of HFT profitability.
The main topics discussed between the sessions
Besides the main conference themes, I had a discussion on how the job market has evolved over the last several years and the difficulties for European faculties to hire high quality researchers.
What I take away for my research
A productive discussion with colleagues will help me to substantially improve my paper.