An agreement by the University of Michigan to distribute its market moving consumer confidence survey via Bloomberg terminals, rather than exclusively through Thomson Reuters, has been applauded by the New York Attorney General as a victory in his prolonged battle against high frequency trading.
In July last year, Attorney General Schneiderman announced an agreement with Thomson Reuters to discontinue the practice of providing high-frequency traders with access to the Michigan consumer survey results prior to the release of that information to its other subscribers.
Thomson Reuters paid more than $1 million a year to exclusively distribute the survey results - which are published once a fortnight - to its terminal subscribers five minutes before the wider market sees them.
However, the data giant had also been giving high-frequency traders willing to pay several thousand dollars a month an extra two second head-start.
The university's move to distribute the information through Bloomberg as a news digest - and free-of-charge on its own Website - ends the practice permanently.
"By ending early access to critical market-moving survey data information, this deal strikes a major blow in our effort to promote fairness and avoid unfair distortions in the securities markets by cracking down on what I call 'Insider Trading 2.0,'" says Schneiderman. "Ensuring there is one set of rules for the entire market is critical to restoring confidence in securities markets, and that's good for everyone involved."