The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is working to implement real-time trading analysis this month. Now the SEC is also looking to hire analysts to help give the system teeth.
SEC’s Real-Time Trading Tech: Midas
The SEC’s new technology – developed by Tradeworx, based in Red Bank, N.J. – will reportedly cost $2.5 million in the first year. The adoption of new technology – it goes by the name of Midas – comes on the heels of an announcement by ASIC, the Australian Securities Investment Commission, that it will use high-frequency trading technologies in order to monitor HFT’s.
Although the technology itself may help the SEC cover a lingering resources gap, it remains to be seen how the data will be used to monitor trading entities. What is clear is how crucial the new system will be in bridging the divide between the increasingly algorithmically drive market and its regulators. This divide was never more evident than in the case of the Knight Capital flash crash, when the SEC could not easily aggregate data.
“Although the SEC started collecting the data in June 2010, it could not aggregate them into a single database for analysis until three months later. Even the seemingly simple task of matching a quote with a trade price proved tough,” said Dina ElBoghdady of The Washington Post.
SEC Promotes Computer Trading Specialist
The SEC announced today that it has promoted Gregg Berman to the position of Associate Director of the Office of Analytics and Research. Berman’s role will now be to help Midas fulfill its potential.
“Though the markets may be complex, they are not impenetrable, and I am confident in our abilities to continue developing data-driven analyses to inform policy,” Berman said in a statement.
SEC Looks to Hire Analysts and Specialists
In order to give Midas teeth, the SEC will also try to hire analysts and specialists away from Wall Street for two-year stints. The agency can only hire non-attorney employees to temporary positions.
