Profit-charging market makers with bounded loss, vanishing bid/ask spreads, and unlimited market depth

  • Authors:
  • Abraham Othman;Tuomas Sandholm

  • Affiliations:
  • Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA;Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Four desiderata for automated market makers have appeared in the literature: (1) bounded loss, (2) the ability to make a profit, (3) a vanishing bid/ask spread, and (4) unlimited market depth. Intriguingly, market makers that satisfy any three of these desiderata have appeared in the literature. However, it was an open question as to whether a market maker can simultaneously satisfy all four because the qualities are oppositional. In this paper, we design market makers that satisfy all four. We achieve this by introducing a new, practical framework. It extends constant-utility cost functions with two separate functions that are added to the prices quoted to the trader. The liquidity function uses its proceeds to increase the amount of liquidity provided by the market maker. The profit function represents a "lockbox" of savings that is separate from the rest of the market maker's decision-making process.