“A major US financial regulator has signalled the first serious effort to curb high-speed automated trading in the futures market, which increasingly influences benchmark assets such as equities, commodities and government bonds.

“The plans detailed by Timothy Massad, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, come with concern growing among regulators over the sudden large price movements that have plagued a number of markets in recent years.

“Such so-called “flash events” have become linked with the growing popularity of high-speed, computerised trading, which has been criticised by institutional investors for fuelling volatility.”

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Read the full Financial Times article by Gregory Meyer and Joe Rennison here.