Moreover, the court only discussed the exchange's proprietary interests. Nothing was said about the order originator's proprietary interests, notes Andy McCarroll, Southeastern Asset Management's vice president and general counsel. "Our view would be that the order originator should be able to control how the order is distributed and put into the public domain until the point in time when the exchanges have a legitimate interest in putting out transaction information for price discovery purposes."
Southeastern believes the issue of ownership of order information needs to be addressed. "The right forum, right now, is this public debate about market structure," McCarroll says.
Few suggest an outright ban on high-frequency trading. Many, like Themis' Saluzzi, just want the SEC to establish some rules of the road. He thinks that unless such trading is appropriately reined in, "You'll see more flash crashes, less confidence in the equity market and more distorted valuations," he predicts.