| Algorithm has been a dirty word this year. In September, Volkswagen admitted to installing a “sophisticated software algorithm” on certain vehicles to cheat emissions tests, and in November Barclays was fined $150m for alleged misuse of its foreign exchange algorithm. New regulation will soon be in place to manage the potential for “market distortion” as a result of the increased use of algorithms in financial markets.
But algorithms in themselves are not malicious, and their use is widespread and multi-faceted in trading across asset classes. At its core, an algorithm is simply a set of instructions given to a computer to carry out a specific task: “buy when the price drops below x”, “offer price y if the market moves in our favour”..............................................Full Article: Source
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