I am curious... Spoofing was so common before, do you guys know some people who recently found it "attractive" to relocate to countries that do not extradite people to the US?
Currency Spoofing Is Said to Be New York's Latest Target "The New York attorney general is investigating possible manipulation in foreign-exchange trading, according to a person familiar with the matter, aiming more scrutiny at a market already tainted by scandals that have led to billions of dollars in fines..." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...oofing-is-said-to-be-new-york-s-latest-target
I think over time we've now come to realize why spoofing has actually been cracked down upon so much: because it's taking money away from HFT entities who own the regulators and exchanges. Spoofing hurts HFT more than it hurts Joe Retail. Naturally the algos will change to try and detect spoofing but then spoofers will change their methodologies as well - essentially all methods being arb'ed out of each other until we're back to before.
Well said i960. That's exactly it. Spoofers only take money off of front running Algos. Spoofers, although not exactly 'honest' in their intentions, are like a parasite that keeps something clean.
It would seem to me that if there was a minimal (and possibly random) time period that orders must remain valid on the books, that both spoofing and HFT would largely dry up. If that happened, I'm still undecided if that would be good or bad for the US financial system.
You nailed it, this is easily solvable with realistic and robust rules but due to bribery and corruption, only the small guys will be prosecuted. Look at the puny sums most are dealing with, Coscia said to have taken in $1.4 mln, pathetic. This is what happens when you don't pay off the right people, I suppose.
Seriously, is spoofing so addictive that you continue even when regulators are already after you? Igor continues to spoof in Feb 2016... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...leged-spoofer-s-trades-lead-to-new-complaints
Perhaps he needs to learn about risk/reward. No amount of money is worth the time he will spend in jail ...