Proprietary trading firms, which include recognizable names like Jane Street and Hudson River Trading, are known for their ability to generate abnormal profits on in-house capital year-after-year:
While it is common knowledge that these firms exist and make money, very little is known about the behind-the-scenes quirks that make it all possible.
So, today we’ll take a look behind the scenes at one of these quirks, a “cheat code” if you will, that gives these firms a special leg up: Direct Market Access.
But before we can understand direct market access, let’s take a look at well, regular market access:
Traditional Market Access
To begin, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a retail trader:
Your day job is at a copper mining company, so you know a good bit about the finer-points of the industry. You notice that today’s flow for Hudbay Minerals Inc. (NYSE:HBM) is abnormally negative compared to its peers. You have your ears-to-the-ground and know that this is likely a temporary mispricing due to any number of non-fundamentals (e.g., executive selling to buy a catamaran, pension fund rebalancing, etc.).