SEC's EDGAR System Gives HFT Subscribers Data Advantage, Says Study

High frequency traders are receiving market moving information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before the general public, a new academic study concludes.

HFT firms who subscribe to the SEC’s direct access feeds of company filings may receive information up to one minute before that information is posted to the regulator’s web site, the study, first published in the Wall Street Journal, noted.

“If milliseconds now matter in securities markets, these numbers challenge the notion that the public dissemination process is a level playing field,” the study conducted by Jonathan Rogers of the University of Colorado, and Douglas Skinner and Sarah Zechman of...