For Schlaepfer, the issue is that much remains outside of the trader's control. He said: "The market itself is the most important part, more than the trader. If the market doesn't give you the opportunities to trade, you can't make money."
SAs Congress orders a study into the possible effects of MiFID II-style policies in the US, the SEC would be better off building bridges with their European counterparts to achieve equivalence than following the EU’s lead, argues Daniel Schlaepfer.
Worldwide spending on AI systems will grow to nearly $35.8 bn in 2019 – a 44% increase on 2018. It’s expected to more than double to $79.2 billion by 2022. In my own sector of international capital markets, the chorus of voices proclaiming the dominance of machine-learning is growing by the day.
Select Vantage President and CEO Daniel Schlaepfer was thrilled to be named in the prestigious list of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 today. Announced today in the nationwide daily National Post, the listing celebrates Daniel’s significant accomplishments as President and CEO of Select Vantage. It also highlights national recognition of his charitable work and thought leadership in Canada’s finance and asset management sector.
The effects of Mifid II are 'rippling' around the world and may cause other regulators to change their approach, Daniel Schlaepfer has said. The president and chief executive of Canadian trading firm Select Vantage told the FTAdviser Podcast that Mifid II influenced what happened in North America because Europe was a "massive part" of the global trading industry.
The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) rules have caused a "shakeout" of small and independent research providers in the investment industry, the CFA Institute has warned.
Plans to launch a new equities exchange on Wall Street, rivalling the existing institutions of NYSE, Nasdaq and CBOE, have drawn a lot of attention over the past two weeks. Major US market-makers including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Virtu Financial have banded together to propose MEMX, a high-tech low-cost alternative to the existing equities platforms. Why are they doing this? The answer is simple – fees.
The creation of MEMX is the latest episode in a long-running saga over what many see as the overinflated sums that exchanges demand from participants – including Select Vantage - for access to their proprietary data feeds. Data fees have steadily risen over the years, without market participants are at a loss to see the value they extract from the service rising in turn. With exchanges showing themselves unwilling to listen, the SEC had to get involved, but a roundtable discussion last October did not engender any progress. MEMX – an exchange run by the participants for the participants – is the latest attempt by certain brokerages to circumvent the excessive fees. But will it work?
At Select Vantage, our perspective on MEMX is a little cautious. Firstly, this is a highly expensive and time-consuming project – it will take a minimum of two years for plans to be approved by the SEC. Once the exchange is up and running, any attempt to undermine the fee structure of existing exchanges will have to be incremental. NYSE, Nasdaq and CBOE will complain furiously at efforts to undercut them. The process will be slow and difficult.
It is also worth noting that new exchanges being born of disputes in the capital markets community is a pattern we have seen before. Less than twenty years ago, a consortium of firms, similar to those supporting MEMX, created the BATS platform to combat the monopoly of the exchanges of the day. Eventually, however, the market was re-consolidated into the three major platforms we see today – and the monopoly is still very much alive. MEMX may succeed in lowering data costs in five years’ time, but another market cycle may leave us in the same situation ten years after that. Effectively, there is no guarantee that MEMX will achieve its aims – and it will be several years before we can gauge its success.
In all disputes, compromise is often the easiest and most pain-free solution. Yet so far, when it comes to data fees, neither exchanges nor participants have shown a willingness to listen to the other side. At the SEC roundtable in October, Chris Concannon, formerly of CBOE, stated that the dispute had left him with “less appetite for compromise”. This attitude dooms the roundtable to failure before it has started – but it doesn’t have to be this way.
With a fundamental shift in perspective, there is still a possibility to find common ground over data costs. A roundtable, with a genuine commitment from all sides towards engagement and flexibility, has the potential to break the deadlock. This time, the SEC would also need to assume the role of moderator and try to prevent unnecessary bickering and deviation. The answer to data fees could prove a lot simpler than creating a costly and impractical new exchange.
Britain’s departure from the EU is an opportunity to reassess Mifid II’s and how it can be a more transparent and competitive marketplace.
Britain’s departure from the EU is an opportunity to reassess Mifid II’s and how it can be a more transparent and competitive marketplace.
Select Vantage opening the Toronto Stock Exchange
On October 31st 2018, Select Vantage was honoured to accept an invitation to ring the opening bell at the Toronto Stock Exchange for the city’s Hospital for Sick Children (known also as Sick Kids).
This opportunity, one offered to few non-listed companies, allowed us to raise over $38,000 for the hospital, directly supporting the research and development of wearable heart monitors for children.
We are proud to have been able to help such a worthy cause.
The Hospital for Sick Children is located only a couple of blocks from the Select Vantage offices and its work is immensely well respected and important. The hospital is affiliated to the University of Toronto and, through its research, has generated discoveries, technologies and techniques which have helped children the world over. The day worked as follows: vendors were asked to contribute money from their budgets or, alternatively, they agreed to discount their commission.
At the end of the day Select Vantage was then able to calculate the percentage of extra profit to donate to Sick Kids. This amounted to over $38,000, which far exceeded out expectations. We had originally hoped to make $25,000 so it was great that we were able to give so much more than that to the Hospital’s research project. It has been extremely rewarding to be involved in this process and to raise money to improve children’s healthcare.
We hope to carry out similar days in the future to provide support to more deserving charities in Canada and beyond!
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