High frequency trading strategies, market fragility and price spikes: an agent based model perspective

Given recent requirements for ensuring the robustness of algorithmic trading strategies laid out in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, this paper proposes a novel agent-based simulation for exploring algorithmic trading strategies. Five different types of agents are present in the market. The statistical properties of the simulated market are compared with equity market depth data from the Chi-X exchange and found to be...