HFT Firms Likely Losers in Avon as Takeover Filing Jacks Shares
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Think a high-frequency trading shop made a mint on the surge in Avon Products Inc. today? Not so fast.
Shares of the beauty products maker shot up beginning around 11:35 a.m. after a takeover offer was filed that the company is now treating as a hoax. Twenty times as many shares as usual changed hands in 25 minutes as the stock went from $6.60 to $8. But HFT firms were unlikely to be on the winning side, said Peter Nabicht, a former senior adviser to the Modern Markets Initiative, a high-frequency trade group.