Finally - SEC May Rein in High-Frequency Trading Firms

Courtesy Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-22/schapiro-says-sec-will-weigh-restrictions-on-high-frequency-trading-firms.html

An Excerpt

The SEC is increasingly signaling concern that a surge in computer-based trading, accounting for more than 50 percent of the daily volume in stocks, has outpaced regulation. The agency faces pushback from hedge funds and other financial firms, which say that new rules shouldn’t be imposed without specific evidence that high-frequency trading hurts markets.
The May 6 plunge in stock prices, in which $862 billion was temporarily erased from the value of U.S. equities in less than 20 minutes, has prompted regulators to question whether markets can “handle the high-speed, pre-programmed trading algorithms that generate much of today’s trading volume,” Schapiro said.