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Good morning. I’m Ira Hammerman, senior managing director and general counsel at SIFMA. I’d like to welcome all of you here this morning to SIFMA’s 12th Annual Market Structure Conference.
Over the last 18 months, the regulatory landscape has dramatically changed to not only reflect the enactment of Dodd-Frank but changing market conditions, with nearly a dozen regulatory bodies proposing and adopting a wide variety of rules, most of which are designed to address events of the past and aim to provide stability into the future.
Today’s Conference will tackle a host of issues that are directly impacting the proper functioning as well as the basic underlying structure of our financial markets, how they efficiently allocate capital, and how they serve institutional and individual investors.
And today’s discussions could not have come at a more critical time.
We’re witnessing increased volatility in our equity markets, which is unsettling for both our member firms and investors. For example, since August 1st, I believe we have had 13 days where the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 200 points—both positive and negative—from the previous day’s close.
Indeed, of those 13 days, eight reflected moves over at least 300 points.
This volatility raises a host of questions, and others remain as well.
Today, we’ll be hearing from market participants, exchange officials and government regulators who are intimately involved with the day-to-day operations of our markets. Topics will cover a broad base: from the recent market volatility to high frequency trading to algorithmic trading to dark pools to sponsored access and to large trader reporting systems, consolidated audit trails and, of course, Dodd-Frank.
There are a lot of balls in the air and all of us need to make sure any new rules are done right.
We believe that, as new regulations are created, we must ensure that they are balanced and effective, and without any inadvertent, adverse consequences for our markets. And, if this requires taking a little more time to study and review proposals to get the rules right, then that time should be taken.
Before we begin today’s program, I’d like to first thank all of you for being here today. It is your support for these industry-wide efforts that is the most vital.
And, I would like to take a moment to also thank our sponsors. This conference has a long history of commitment from our members.
Our sponsors provide the foundation for this meeting, which continues to be an important information-sharing and networking forum for the industry.So, today, I’d like to thank Citadel, Davis Polk, Dow Jones, DTCC, eFinancialCareers, Goldman Sachs, Knight Capital Group, UBS AG, NYU and Direct Edge for their commitment to this event.
Now, I’d like to get today’s program started by introducing our first speaker.
I am happy to welcome Gregg Berman as our keynote speaker for today. Gregg currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Director, Division of Trading and Markets, at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Following the events of the May 6, 2010 Flash Crash, Gregg was responsible for leading the inquiry to determine what caused the market to drop more than 600 points in approximately 5 minutes. Gregg continues to work on market volatility and other market structure issues at the Commission.In addition to his work at the SEC, Gregg’s background within the financial industry has been quite extensive. Gregg was one of the founding members of the RiskMetrics Group, has co-managed a private hedge fund, and worked for an investment management company. He’s a physicist by training, earning a B.S. in Physics from M.I.T. and a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University.
Ggregg, we’re very pleased to have you join us this morning. Ladies and entlemen, Gregg Berman
