Small Cap, Big Challenge
Issue 09 Q2 2008
Automated Trader Magazine
Small and mid cap trade execution is a tough nut to crack. Long ‘dry’ periods, with occasional unexpected patches of liquidity, call for a very different execution style from large caps. Don White, Head of US Equity Product Development at Bloomberg Tradebook, explains how flexible high touch tools can be combined with conventional algos to provide a ‘mid touch’ solution that may produce enhanced small/mid cap execution performance.
Anyone trading small and mid caps quickly discovers that unless you have an almost infinite trade time horizon, low touch algorithms on their own just don’t work. Low touch algos may be fine for large liquid names, but for small/mid caps the key to efficient execution is also having a flexible high touch strategy in the toolbox. ...