In February, when the National Stock Exchange (NSE) issued a caution letter to Jane Street, alleging that its trades appear to be "fraudulent and manipulative", the global high frequency trading (HFT) major almost completely stopped trading for 2-3 weeks, according to a regulatory source.
More importantly, however, data shows that there was no real dent on the volume in the equity derivatives segment. This assumes significance as many in the market have been expressing concerns over the impact on F&O volumes with Jane Street being banned.
Data from NSE shows that the daily average number of index options contract traded in the five-day period between February 1-6 was around 9.8 crore.
The next five-day period between February 7-13 -- when Jane Street was not active in the arena -- the average number increased to 12.01 crore contracts. Thereafter, between February 14-20, the number dipped a bit to touch 10.2 crore contracts but was still higher than the first week of February.
Meanwhile, the last week of February — between 21st and 28th -- the average number of index options traded daily was a little over 9.3 crore.
Incidentally, ever since the SEBI interim order came on Friday, the market has been abuzz with talks that given Jane Street's volume of trading -- on many days it alone accounted for around 20-25 percent of the options volume -- a ban on its trading activities will have a significant impact on the overall derivatives turnover of the Indian capital market.
To be sure, there are views on both sides of the argument.
In a social media post, Dinesh Thakkar, Managing Director, Chairman and the Founder of Angel One, said that while the order has sparked a debate on the future of proprietary trading in India, the influx of millions of retail traders and deepening institutional activity has ensured that the market is not dependent on any one entity.
"When one player exits, others step in and often, very fast... SEBI’s clampdown will bring sharper compliance and more robust governance thus, strengthening market integrity and raising the bar for all... players may change, but India’s capital market continues to deepen, diversify, and grow," said Thakkar.
In a similar context, Zerodha Founder & CEO Nithin Kamath had said that proprietary firms like Jane Street account for nearly 50 percent of the options trading volumes and any kind of pull back might impact retail activity whose share is around 35 percent.
"This could be bad news for both exchanges and brokers... The next few days will be telling. F&O volumes might reveal just how reliant we are on these prop giants," said Kamath in a post.
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