BRIC countries have caught the virus of automated trading

Thanks to computer programs and algorithmic formulas, it is now possible to transfer stocks, currencies and commodities from hand to hand in a fraction of a second, without human intervention.

In the financial centers of Europe and the United States, this practice has been in place for several years, and regulators have already declared themselves unable to deal with the situation. But while they are making plans to curb trading based on algorithms, emerging markets are actively adopting this type of trading.
"The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are seeing this at the moment," says Dr. John Bates, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Progress Software, a company that is pioneering new technologies in so-called quantitative trading programs. "First it was happening in London and New York, then in Brazil. Now we're seeing the same trend in India and China and even, in embryonic form, in Russia."
Indian analysts believe that a quarter of all trades in the country currently involve algorithms, compared with half of such trades in Europe and nearly two-thirds in the US. Curbing ultra-fast trading in Europe is part of the long-awaited reforms in trading market regulation scheduled for later this year.

Based on foreign press for ForTrader.org