SGX should consult public on HFT

THERE is a sense of painful resignation, infused with no small amount of frustration and even impending doom among retail players and their brokers following news that the Singapore Exchange (SGX) is pressing ahead with plans to introduce high-frequency trading (HFT) to the local equities market. Since it appears to be a question of when and not if, the exchange should address the myriad issues before opening its doors to a mode of trading that is controversial and has yet to prove beneficial to markets as a whole.

The first thing that the SGX and the Monetary Authority of Singapore should note is the abs…