There are different types of participants in electronic trading markets:
- Retail / Individual Traders
- Institutional Traders
- High-Frequency Traders (HFTs)
- Market Makers / Designated Liquidity Providers
- Proprietary Trading Firms (Prop Traders)
- Hedge Funds
- Algorithmic / Systematic Traders
- Noise / Liquidity-Seeking Traders
These categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, an institutional trader can also engage in high-frequency trading and act as a market maker.
Let's explore what identity variables could be exposed on worldwide exchange order books.
What identity variables should exist on global market data order books?
The FIX API (a standardized messaging format/protocol for order routing, execution reporting, and trade communication) is used by market data firms and participants for electronic trading. A market participant connects to a network feed, and trade communications begin. Programmatic trading via FIX occurs on the market, and understanding this is useful when exploring the topic.
Ethics play a key role in markets. When an unethical participant gains access to worldwide programmatic capital allocation, it can hinder market functions. Exposing participant identities on order books could enable real-time market calculations.
For example, if global market data feeds included the identity of Société Générale bank customers trading American soybeans on CBOT, global market participants could deduce a great deal in real time. (Note: Not all Société Générale accounts are unethical, but assume for this hypothetical that the bank has ill intentions toward American farmers—e.g., making trades to harm soybean production.)
Real-time visibility of such data would allow all market participants to make more accurate economic calculations. Asset managers for American farmers could react immediately and protect the value and calculations associated with their farmers' positions.
Sane identity exposure on programmatic financial feeds could also begin with tax-funded financial assets, such as U.S. federal debt.
U.S. federal debt is ultimately tax-funded, and its value affects the government's ability to raise capital. Exposing trader identities with variables in market data feeds for these markets would improve calculations for all market participants.
Additionally, regulations could be enforced programmatically if the necessary data were included in programmatic feeds. This would reduce expenditures for tax-funded financial regulatory authorities and immediately improve functions.
President Trump recently announced (January 7, 2026) that large institutional traders would be banned from purchasing additional single-family homes. This action could be handled programmatically by including trader identities on market data feeds.
February 8, 1971, marked the launch of NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations), the beginning of automated trading.
Worldwide financial trading has never fully self-regulated. It is time for exchanges and firms to prove they can provide better options than bodies such as FINRA (U.S.), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), or the Securities Association of China (SAC; 中国证券业协会).
Exchanges and financial firms worldwide have strong incentives to improve business conditions, and they should play a much larger role in setting regulatory standards.
AI confirmed this is a valid conclusion:
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