Are North American Market Forces Doing What MiFID II Intended?

With the implementation of MiFID II more than a year ago, European hedge fund trading “underwent a tectonic shift,” according to a Greenwich Associates report. The new regulations, which unbundled research and other “soft” services from the commissions bulge bracket brokerage firms charged institutional clients, were designed to take make brokerage commission costs transparent and lesson the role relationships played in decisions. These changes are likely to come to the US, Richard Johnson surmised in the recently released report “Trends in Global Equity Electronic Execution.” But could the free market already be doing the job? Q1 hedge fund letters, conference,…