There's about to be a showdown between America's biggest players in trading

pulse

June 26, 2017 9:36 PM

On Tuesday morning, some of the biggest players in trading will be present at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, and things are likely to get heated.

Some of the biggest players in trading will be present at the House Financial Services Committee's US Equity Market Structure hearing on Tuesday, and things are likely to get heated.

The first panel includes Matt Lyons, Senior Vice President and Global Trading Manager at The Capital Group, Joseph Saluzzi from Themis Trading, and Ari Rubenstein, CEO of high-speed market-maker Global Trading Systems.

According to

designated market maker for the NYSE, bringing together buyers and sellers on the exchange. It recently acted as DMM on the initial public offering of Snap.

Rubenstein is set to argue that the proposal, which would allow NYSE and Nasdaq-listed securities to be matched on Bats at the end of the trading day, attempts to solve a problem that doesn't exist. (You can read more about how the Bats model works here). It would also have a negative impact on the already struggling IPO market, according to Rubenstein.

"Issuers want a centralized closing process for their shares because of the integrity of the closing price derived by the centralized auctions," Rubenstein said. "If we take away this most basic and fundamental feature of our equity market structure, issuers will have yet one more reason to forgo going public and listing on an exchange."

He attached a recent letter to the SEC as an appendix to his testimony, quoting four executives at NYSE-listed companies expressing concern about the proposals.

Of course, that's not the way Bats sees it. It argues the new offering will help bring down closing auction fees, which it says have increased by 16% to 60% at NYSE and Nasdaq. Rubenstein argues in his remarks that the fees are not excessive.

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