A comparison of U.S and Chinese financial market microstructure: heterogeneous agent-based multi-asset artificial stock markets approach

The market microstructure literatures study how the traders work in the financial market. In this paper, we propose a novel heterogeneous agent-based multi-asset artificial stock market based on Santa Fe Artificial Stock Market (SFI-ASM) to compare the financial market microstructure between U.S. and China. We first develop a set of new parameters for the single stock market simulation to improve the way that agents monitor the market and choose different strategies, which make our model closer to the real financial market. Secondly, we construct a multiple assets financial market by incorporating two new types of agents, namely, zero-intelligence agents and less-intelligence agents, and conduct simulations for different evolution speeds, strategies, and intelligence levels to achieve the optimal models of Chinese and U.S. financial markets before and after the financial crisis. Based on the simulation results, we present a comprehensive analysis of the market microstructure for the two financial markets.