Front running is mostly an illegal practice that traders use to purchase security according to certain non-public information they gain access to in advance.
What is Front Running?
In simple terms, front running is when a trader or investor buys security, taking into account secret insider knowledge. This knowledge usually centres around a potential big upcoming trade that might have a significant impact on the price movement. Front running is considered illegal as it is essentially a way to manipulate the market and a type of insider trading. It provides an unfair advantage to traders and investors when they use information that’s not available to the public.
Examples of Front Running in the Stock Market
Here is a look at some of the examples of front running in the stock market.
Through Large Future Transactions
Front running is mainly carried out by brokers or brokerage firms. Here’s how it basically works:
Let us suppose that a trader places an order for 100,000 shares of XYZ company with their broker. Realising that the high trade volume in the order will help push the stock prices up, the broker places his own trade order and buys 2,000 shares that are valued at ₹100 each.
After this, the broker places their client’s high-volume order, which ends up making the share price jump from ₹100 to ₹130. Seeing this, the broker decides to sell off the shares he bought and ends up making close to ₹60,000 in profits. This type of front-running is as shady and unethical as it sounds. This is the broker betraying their client’s trust to make profits.
Through News That Will Change a Stock’s Price
Apart from big trades, front running involves the use of insider knowledge centred around the news that could move the market considerably. Here's a more elaborate example of this:
Think of an analyst working on the investment report of a top company, one that has not been released yet. This report, however, gives a strong recommendation to buy the company's stocks. Now, the analyst knows that once this report goes public, investors will start thronging to buy the stocks, thus driving the price higher, the analyst decides to buy the stocks before the release of the report. Once the report is released, the price of the stocks jumps as anticipated, providing the analysts with a nice profit when they sell it. This practice is also unfair and unethical.
Index Front Running
There are a few examples of front running that are not illegal. One such example is index front running. Index front running is a legal strategy that traders use. Here’s how it works:
Index funds are funds that track some of the major stock market indices like the S&P 500. These funds need to buy the stocks when they get added to an index. However, the announcement of this addition is made in advance before the funds end up buying it. We understand that this might not sound too different from the previous examples, but this type of front running is perfectly legal.
Working of Front Running in Stock Market
What you need to understand about front running is that it is very similar to insider trading. However, in this case, the broker takes advantage of their position at the firm instead of from inside a client’s company. The fact, however, is still that most front running is illegal and exploitative. To help you understand the concept better, here is an example and a step-by-step breakdown of how front running works in the stock market.
Suppose a trader places an order for 100,000 shares of Company A with their broker. The broker, looking at the high trade volume, knows it will push the stock prices up and places his own order of 2,000 shares, valued at ₹90 each.
Once his client’s high-volume order is placed, the share prices jump from ₹90 to ₹120. The broker, seeing this, decides to sell off the shares and makes a profit of around ₹60,000. So yes, this type of front running is as shady and unethical as it sounds and involves the broker betraying his client’s trust.
Leveraging Analyst Suggestions
This is another form of front-running that can be considered shady or unethical. Under this type of front running, acting on a company analyst’s recommendation before it goes public, the broker indulges in illegal front running.
In a company, research analysts and brokers work in separate divisions. The analysts are tasked with evaluating companies and issuing recommendations and reports to clients regarding buying, selling or holding stocks. These reports essentially go to the clients first and are then sent to the financial media. Once these reports are widely circulated, they are bound to result in the movement of stock prices.
However, if a broker gets early access to such reports and indulges in the buying and selling of the stocks accordingly before clients are made aware of the report, it is considered illegal front-running.
Index Front-Running
There is, however, an exception to the rule. You see, not all front-running is illegal, especially when it comes to index funds.
Index funds track financial indexes and mirror their portfolio. However, knowing that stock prices are constantly fluctuating, the index might add or remove stocks to maintain its balance and work in tandem with the market. This leaves the buying and selling of shares to fund managers.
Smart traders know index funds need to adjust themselves from time to time, so they keep an eye on these changes. This helps them jump in early to either buy or sell shares before the funds do in the hopes that they can profit from the price movement.