A two-second head start on market-moving news can be an eternity for a high-speed trader using an algorithmic super computer program, and many companies pay handsomely for the advantage. Now regulators are pushing to level the playing field and keep information providers from releasing important news early to select clients.
If it sounds familiar, it should. The effort is similar to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Fair Disclosure, which outlaws the practice of companies providing select disclosure of material information to favored analysts or investors. This time, the target is private information providers that have early access to government statistics, such as jobs figures or other economic indexes, and even data generated by private institutions.
