Regulators across markets continue to show interest in high frequency trading and algorithmic trading generally. Recent developments in this area include:

• On October, 16, 2014, the SEC imposed a $1 million sanction on a high frequency trading firm, Athena Capital Research, which allegedly placed large numbers of rapid-fire orders in the final two seconds of trading to manipulate the closing prices of thousands of NASDAQ-listed stocks. According to the settlement documents, the trading algorithm, code-named “Gravy,” purportedly allowed Athena to overwhelm the market’s available liquidity at the close, and artificially move the market in Athena’s favor.