Colo, high-speed trading prone to manipulation: Sebi committee chief

An issue that the capital markets regulator had grappled with time and again, he said, was the fairness with respect to processing and executing trades

The issue of preferential access to select clients for executing market orders — which came to the fore a few years ago with the NSE’s colocation case — was cited again by Ashok Jhunjhunwala, chairman of Sebi’s technical advisory committee (TAC). 

Speaking at an event organised by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) via video call on Thursday, Jhunjhunwala hinted that co-location and high-speed trading were prone to manipulation and fraud, and that traders could game the system in connivance with market players to get faster access to price-sensitive information. 

An issue that