Front Running 2.0: An Ethical Evaluation of Selected Strategies of High-frequency Traders from a Non-utilitarian Perspective

Anna Blachnio-Parzych ()
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Anna Blachnio-Parzych: Kozminski University, Criminal Law Department

Journal of Business Ethics, 2025, vol. 202, issue 3, No 9, 603-613

Abstract: Abstract The ethical evaluation of high-frequency trading strategies is a controversial subject. On the one hand, for some authors the strategies are fraudulent in nature, or at least may lead to an unfair advantage over other traders. On the other hand, there are claims that such behaviours are beneficial for the market as a whole and should be accepted. An analysis of the arguments leads to the conclusion that the authors make different assumptions concerning the way fairness in capital markets is understood, and in consequence, the criteria that should be taken into account when assessing the ethics of a given behaviour. This observation leads to the conclusion that an essential step should be to justify the criteria for the ethical evaluation of high-frequency trading strategies. The criteria currently dominating the debate are utilitarian in nature. I present critical arguments regarding them and propose to evaluate them from the perspective of ethical values whose infringement justifies the criminalisation of insider trading in selected legislation. In this article, I focus on the ethical evaluation of those high-frequency trading strategies which are designated as a new category of front running (front running 2.0). The strategies are made possible by the specific features of the current market design, especially the commercialisation of privileged access to market data and co-location.

Keywords: Front running; High-frequency trading; Insider trading; Fairness; Non-utilitarian perspective (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-025-06008-7

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