Tradebot
{{Short description|US high-frequency trading firm}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Tradebot Systems, Inc.
| logo = Tradebot.png
| industry = algorithmic trader
| company_type = S Corporation
| foundation = 1999
| location = Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.{{cite web|url=http://www.tradebotsystems.com/contact.asp|title=Tradebot Systems|author=|date=|website=www.TradebotSystems.com|access-date=August 25, 2017}}
| num_employees = 40
| key_people = Dave Cummings – Founder, CEO
| homepage = {{URL|http://www.tradebot.com/}}
}}
Tradebot Systems, Inc. is a high-frequency equity trading firm in the US. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, they regularly account for 5% of the total trading volume in the US stock market.{{cite web|url=http://tradebotsystems.com/|title=Tradebot Systems|author=|date=|website=TradebotSystems.com|access-date=August 25, 2017}} According to the founder, Dave Cummings, as of 2008, the firm "typically held stocks for 11 seconds", and "had not had a losing day in 4 years".{{cite web|url=https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/speedy-new-traders-make-waves-far-from-wall-st/|title=Speedy New Traders Make Waves Far From Wall Street|first=|last=Dealbook|date=May 17, 2010|website=DealBook|access-date=August 25, 2017}} That streak continued uninterrupted until 2017.
History
The firm was founded in 1999 and had an early relationship with fellow high-frequency trading shop Getco.{{cite book |title = Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System |last = Patterson |first = Scott |year = 2012 |publisher = Crown Publishing |isbn = 978-0307887177}}{{rp|188–192}}
In 2005 Cummings left Tradebot to start a new electronic market, which he called the Better Alternative Trading System. That market eventually became the BATS Exchange.
In 2007 Cummings left BATS to return to Tradebot. The firm is affiliated with Tradebot Ventures, Tradebot Properties, Tatora and Auxby.{{cite web|url=http://tradebot.com/about|title=Tradebot Systems|author=|date=|website=Tradebot.com|access-date=August 25, 2017}}
In summer 2014, New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman accused Barclays of hiding that Tradebot was one of the largest participants in their dark pool. Tradebot was not accused of any wrongdoing.{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-25/high-frequency-firm-tradebot-swam-in-barclays-pool-n-y-says|title=High-Frequency Firm Tradebot Swam in Barclays Pool, N.Y. Says|author=|date=June 25, 2014|publisher=|access-date=August 25, 2017|via=www.Bloomberg.com}}
The Wall Street Journal reported that the firm had a nearly 14-year streak of profitable trading every day, that ended in 2017. Today, the firm exclusively trades in US stocks, having shuttered its only international effort, in Canadian stocks in 2016.{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/tradebot-pioneer-of-high-speed-trading-struggles-with-profit-slump-11580739026|title=Tradebot, Pioneer of High-Speed Trading, Struggles With Profit Slump}}