The Good, Bad And Ugly Of Algorithmic Trading

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has drawn a regulatory framework for algorithmic trading in an attempt to protect retail investors’ interest and prevent any possible manipulations in the secondary market. What led it to impose regulations? Armaan Madhani explains the how and why of algorithm trading

- Armaan Madhani

Life is a process of evolution. Change is at the very core of evolution and is also inevitable. It seems like artificial intelligence (AI) is the universal answer for evolution in every single field. To quote Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, “We are at the beginning of a golden age of AI. Recent advancements have already led to inventions that previously lived in the realm of science fiction — and we have only scratched the surface of what’s possible.” On similar lines, when it comes to the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world of investing and trading, change is the only constant. There is no two ways about it and AI probably looks like the way forward.

Whether you are aware of it or not, algorithms are increasingly becoming a ubiquitous part of our lives. An algorithm is a set of instructions for solving a problem or accomplishing a task. It is a step-by-step procedure used for calculations, data processing and automated reasoning. Algorithmic trading is the process of using pre-programmed trading instructions to execute trading orders at high speed in the financial market. Investors and traders use trading software and feed it trading instructions based on time, volume and price. Once the set instructions are triggered in the market, the trading software executes the orders set by the investor.