Trading system upgrades and short-sale bans: Uncoupling the effects of technology and regulation

We examine the market quality effects of technology upgrades juxtaposed with short-sale bans. Between 2011 and 2013, the Spanish Stock Exchange introduced a smart trading platform (SIBE-Smart) and colocation to facilitate high-speed trading, and they also imposed two short-sale bans. We find that the SIBE-Smart introduction, which occurs between the two short-sale bans, leads to reduced market quality. The introduction of colocation, which occurs during the second short-sale ban, improves market liquidity although it does not attract additional high-speed trading. Our results highlight how the effects of latency-reducing infrastructure improvements depend on, and differ across, different regulatory regimes.