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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 134 No. 1 2019

Inverted fee structures, tick size, and market quality

Carole Comerton-Forde; Vincent Grégoire1; Zhuo Zhong2

1 HEC Montréal · 2 The University of Melbourne

Abstract

Stock exchanges compete for order flow through their fee models. A traditional model pays rebates to liquidity suppliers, and an inverted model pays rebates to liquidity demanders. Using a regulatory intervention to examine the interaction between tick size, restrictions on dark trading, and exchange fees, we show that traders use inverted venues to adjust for suboptimal tick sizes. Increased inverted venue activity improves pricing efficiency and liquidity, especially when the tick size is binding. We show that the sub-tick price improvement offered by inverted venues enhances competition for liquidity provision and increases information impounded into prices through nonmarketable limit orders.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.03.005
Volume
134
Issue
1
Pages
141-164
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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