Posted by FrankP on April 04, 2014 at 15:55:02:
In Reply to: New book “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt" posted by JEJ on March 28, 2014 at 17:28:41:
: A new book “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis says the U.S. stock market is rigged to hurt the average investor and benefit high frequency traders. He says computer-based high-speed trading gives them the ability to identify your desire to buy shares in any stock, buy the shares fractions of milliseconds in front of you, and then sell them back to you at a higher price.
I'm not sure what the big deal is. Hasn't speed always been a tool of Wall Street traders, all the way back to the days when the brokers had news tickers and stocks tickers? It was the latest technology of the day. They would watch those tickers print out paper tapes with the breaking news, and if it was news that might affect a particular stock, they would run across the street to the New York Stock Exchange and put in a quick order. The high frequency traders of today are just doing the same thing.