Course 2016-2017 a.y.

30181 - THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF FINANCIAL MARKETS


CLEAM - CLEF - CLEACC - BESS-CLES - WBB - BIEF - BIEM

Department of Finance

Course taught in English

Go to class group/s: 31
CLEAM (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - CLEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - CLEACC (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - BESS-CLES (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - WBB (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - BIEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - BIEM (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01)
Course Director:
BARBARA RINDI

Classes: 31 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: BARBARA RINDI



Course Objectives

Two are the main objectives of this course:
  • Present to the students the structure of the European and US financial markets and discuss the rules and principles that govern trading and price formation in the most advanced electronic trading platforms and auction markets.
  • Teach the students how to trade securities on an electronic order book market like London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, NASDAQ, NYSE, or alternative trading systems (lit and dark pools).

Course Content Summary

Financial Market Structures:
  • Novelties from Market Microstructure and Research Objectives
  • Trading Process
    • Continuous vs batch auction
  • Orders and order properties
  • Market Participants and the role of market makers
  • Market Structure
    • Trading sessions: call and continuous auction markets
    • Execution systems: order-driven, quote-driven and hybrid markets
  • Trading Rules for Order Driven Markets
    • Price formation
    • Matching rules
  • Guidelines for Price Monitoring, Price Discovery
    • Circuit breakers and market crashes
  • Pricing
    • Trading fees: Make-Take vs Symmetric Pricing Structure
  • Algorithmic Trading and High Frequency Trading (HFT)
  • Regulatory Debate on Dark Liquidity and Tick Size
  • Post-trading systems: clearing and settlement
Microstructure of stock and forex markets:
  • Exchanges for trading equities (e.g., Borsa Italiana/LSE, NASDAQ and NYSE), and currencies (e.g., EBS)
  • Alternative Trading Systems (ATS), Electronic Communication Networks (ECN) and Dark Pools
Most recent financial legislation:
  • Europe (e.g., MIFID) and US (e.g., Reg NMS and SEC latest concept releases)
Trading Game:
  • Students will participate to a simulation game prepared to practise real-time trading

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

  • Written exam at the end of the course.
  • Special assessments for non-attending students (e.g., written paper) are left to the discretion of the lecturer.

Textbooks

Lecture notes (e-learning) and selected articles.
Selected chapters from:
  • B. JOHNSON, Algorithmic Trading & DMA., 4Myeloma Press, 2010.
  • L. HARRIS, Trading and Exchanges. Market Microstructure for Practitioners, Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • R. LYONS, The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rate, MIT Press, 2001.
Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library)

Prerequisites


Last change 21/03/2016 12:31