There is no chance of any Regulator oversight in the Australian Market. The government is slashing its funding to ASIC. If you thought they intervention was rare before they will now be non existent.
As for HFT and Algo trading. I find the worst thing for retail investors is brokers are able to trade in fractions of a cent on the small to midcap and retail investors cannot which changes the dynamics of the market completely for retail investors. I watch this happening constantly shares being purchased at lets say 60.2cents and sold at 60.4 cents all day every day. Throw in the algo trading with its directional bias chosen by the traders/hedge funds/brokers and they just wash the buyers right out as far as retail trading is concerned.
Watched a news report this morning and a Broker was complaining that the retail investors at his wealth and investment forum are treating equity investment as poison, in fact he said there were more people waiting for the bathroom facilities than share investment advice.
Retail investors have had enough of being treated like cash cows with no real recourse.. ie short selling of companies which are held and promoted to investors, share lending and borrowing by large organisations and used on companies recommended. This sort of trading should be investigated, but of course its just market action to the people who engage in it.
Those organisations complaining about the lack of retail investors have themselves to blame.
A lot of retail investors have packed up and left the market. With the RBA guaranteeing low rates for the foreseeable future they are buying property, whether it goes up or down they still get more than they get in the market or term deposits.
