Tuesday, August 13, 2013

HFT: "Some Things We Learned From The GETCO 8-K" (KCG)

getcoFrom Themis Trading:
After years of secrecy, we are finally getting a peak at one of the largest players in the high frequency trading space. GETCO, having merged with Knight Capital after the $440 million Knight algo disaster, now has to file financial reports with the SEC. On August 6th, they filed a Form 8-K which shed some light on their financial health. After reading through the report, it’s quite apparent that low volume and low volatility has severely impact the profitability of one of the largest electronic market makers.

GETCO has seen its market share in U.S. cash equities decline from as high as approximately 19% in 2009 to approximately 3% for the three months ended June 30, 2013. Their market making business lost $1.9 million in the second quarter of 2013 (revenues were $118.4 million and expenses were $120.3 million). 
GETCO’s Execution Services business also lost $2.9 million the second quarter.

Here are some other facts we pulled from the 8-K:
GETCO is the primary market maker for GETMatched, which is an off-exchange, dark liquidity pool for cash equities. GETMatched is an SEC-registered Alternative Trading System (“ATS”) and pays clients for some of its order flow. 
The majority of GETCO’s market making revenue is derived from trading strategies that typically have very short time horizons and little overnight risk exposure....MORE
I couldn't get the embedded link to the 8K to work so here it is again:
http://www.knight.com/investorRelations/secFiling.asp