Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions | Market Microstructure

Today's markets for stocks, bonds, derivatives and cryptocurrencies vary in sophistication and complexity. For some securities, markets have evolved to anonymous networks that are fast, widely accessible, and transparent. We also have markets where a few traders act as "dealers." In these markets, reputations and relationships are important. Some trading mechanisms are new (the open electronic limit order book); some are as old as antiquity (the single-price call auction). We have a general sense that all markets are heading toward some sort of electronic future, but the progress toward this goal is rough and uneven. Our markets are infused with tensions between efficiency and fairness, competition and regulation, consolidation and fragmentation, speed and stability, and so on. The Market Microstructure project dedicates itself to the analysis, design and regulation of trading mechanisms for securities.