Algorithmic Trading

In electronic financial markets, algorithmic trading refers to the use of computer programs to automate one or more stages of the trading process: pretrade analysis (data analysis), trading signal generation (buy and sell recommendations), and trade execution. Trade execution is further divided into agency/broker execution (when a system optimizes the execution of a trade on behalf of a client) and principal/proprietary trading (where an institution trades on its own account). Each stage of this trading process can be conducted by humans, by humans and algorithms, or fully by algorithms.