HFT Response to News and Volatility

<p>The emergence of high-frequency traders (hereafter HFTs) that is investors using computers to trade securities over extremely short time intervals is a major change in the securities markets over the last decade. Nowadays HFTs are one of the major players in the U.S. stock markets accounting for more than 40% of NASDAQ dollar volume in 2009 (Hirschey (2014)). This situation has provoked heated debate about how to correctly define the role of HFTs in the equities markets as well as about their overall contribution to the market quality.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>