The Role of High-Frequency Traders in the Foreign Exchange Market Bid-Ask Spreads

Carlos Lenczewski ()
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Carlos Lenczewski: Warsaw School of Economics, Banking and Commercial Insurance Institute

No 2016/01, EUSP Department of Economics Working Paper Series from European University at St. Petersburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper presents a review of the literature on high-frequency traders and their presence in the microstructure analysis of the foreign exchange, and how they fall under the determinants of the bid-ask spread of foreign exchange rates. The bid-ask spread is one of the key elements of the microstructure approach in the foreign exchange market. Understood as the difference between the price a participant buys the base currency and the price for which the participant sells that same currency. The understanding of what affects spread is important to assess dealers rent, price fairness and transparency and for transaction costs both in trading systems and settlement systems. It is shown, that algorithmic trading, and for that high-frequency traders, do not have a negative role in volatility, and are not a reason for widening bid-ask spreads. In fact, evidence shows that their presence is a key factor in the spreads being more narrow.

Keywords: high-frequency trading; spread; foreign exchange; microstructure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 F31 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2016-06-07
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