Unclear What Caused Kraft Spike: Nanex Founder

A $13-per-share spike in the price of Kraft shares at Wednesday’s market open sent traders looking for answers, and Nanex founder Eric Hunsader told CNBC he was concerned about the impact of high-frequency trading.

“Just yesterday, a brand-new algo showed up that accounted for 4 percent of all the quotes in the market yesterday — and this is one person,” he said on “Fast Money.”

“The problem is, every exchange sees things from their own little world. They don’t see how things react outside of that world, and they have no incentive to. So when you have these complex systems interacting with each other and nobody’s really paying attention to the aggregate, you set yourself up for times of market stress, that you’re only going find out how the new systems all work together when you’ve got this really bad news event that nobody was expecting.”

When the market opened, Kraft shares went from $45.55 to a high of $58.54 before the Nasdaq canceled trades above $47.82.

(Read More: Nasdaq Cancels Some Kraft Trades After Unusual Spike)

“It started out doing pretty well. In fact, the first few buy pulses over the first two seconds sopped up liquidity pretty well without moving the price,” Hunsader said. “A second after that — and it could be a second buyer that came in there — is what sent it up a good $10.

(Read More: Cuban, Cooperman: Curb High-Frequency Trading)

“It just didn’t seem to have any sanity check on how high it was supposed to go.”

Hunsader said that one solution should be allowing the trades go through and make the bidder pay the inflated price.

“I think let the market sort it out,” he said. “I wouldn’t cancel the trade.”

Trader disclosure: On Oct. 3, 2012, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s “Fast Money” were owned by the “Fast Money” traders: Brian Kelly is long QQQ; Brian Kelly is long DBA; Brian Kelly is long UNG; Brian Kelly is long NAT GAS; Brian Kelly is long CORN; Brian Kelly is long GLD; Brian Kelly is long SLV; Steve Grasso is long AET; Steve Grasso is long ASTM; Steve Grasso is long AUO; Steve Grasso is long BA; Steve Grasso is long F; Steve Grasso is long LF; Steve Grasso is long LNG; Steve Grasso is long MHY; Steve Grasso is long P; Steve Grasso is long NVIV; Steve Grasso is long PFE; Steve Grasso is long S; Steve Grasso is long WYNN; Joe Terranova is long EMC; Joe Terranova is long NXPI; Joe Terranova is long VRTS; Joe Terranova is long WFM; Joe Terranova is long SWN; Joe Terranova is long TRV; Joe Terranova is long VZ; Joe Terranova is long VLO; Joe Terranova is long CSTR; Joe Terranova is long CHKP; Joe Terranova is long GLW; Joe Terranova is short EURO CURRENCY FUTURES; Enis Taner is long AAPL PUTS; Enis Taner is long GS; Enis Taner is long GLD; Enis Taner is long YHOO CALLS.

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