High-speed traders oppose SEC’s idea to limit rebates

Three big high-speed traders want the federal court to stop the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from limiting the rebates stock exchanges give to high-speed traders, WSJ writes.

In a joint court filing, Citadel Securities LLC, GTS Securities LLC and IMC BV wrote the SEC’s Transaction Fee Pilot was “ill-conceived” as it would harm investors. The filing was made in support of the legal challenge by the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and Cboe; the exchanges sued the SEC to impede the trials.

“We know that the outcome of the Transaction Fee Pilot will be negative, even if we cannot predict the full scope of the harm that the SEC’s experiment will impose upon issuers, markets, and investors,” the traders said.

Indeed, the pilot would impact high-speed traders like the three companies. Exchanges offer massive rebates to bankers and large traders, making smaller enterprises shoulder a lot of the fees. 

If the Transaction Fee Pilot is launched, it will run from one to two years and affect over 1,400 exchanges.