[fwdpropaganda]

Some context from a non-expert.

From what I understand, things like spoofing in financial markets (where you submit orders which you don't plan to have filled for the purpose that the market sees "interest" in a certain direction and in hope that moves the market), are regulated but still a grey area. The reason for this is that it's an activity that involves intent. Placing certain orders is perfectly ok if you're hoping that they get filled and you take a position, but placing the same orders could be spoofing if your goal is to cancel them once the market starts moving as a consequence.

[sine]

This is an execelent flowchart detailing the regulatory policy on spoofing on US stock markets: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXD3RlQVoAALYLa.jpg

[bhouston]

Is this serious?

[asfasgasg]

The person who wrote it was probably serious, but it is not correct.

[perl4ever]

"Everybody" hates HFTs, but everybody also wants the illusion of a continuous market that can be bought and sold into at any moment in any quantity. So a lot of the arguments/discussions are really about how we can pretend that the trading which is required isn't really happening.

[jasonmorton]

Yes, it seems like intent is important, but in some cases (e.g. the BATS rule), no intent is needed. There are statistical properties that indicate intent, but it seems like most of the criminal cases involve finding an email or text message like "I found a bot" or someone telling an engineer to build a system with a manipulative intent.

[fwdpropaganda]

Link to BATS rule?

[jasonmorton]

12.15 on p 167 of http://cdn.batstrading.com/resources/regulation/rule_book/BA...