Daniel Coleman, chief executive of high-frequency trader Getco, said the stability of US equity markets should be considered as important as speed and efficiency, as even institutional investors have lost confidence in how or where their orders are executed.

Coleman was speaking yesterday at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee on US equity market structure, following the outflows from equity mutual funds after the "Flash Crash" in 2010, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1,000 points in a few minutes, and after the recent high-profile glitches around the trading of the Facebook initial public offering.