How appropriate, the Flash Boys book just showed up from Amazon this morning.
Be sure to pair the read with the critique:
Flash Boys: Not So Fast
https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Insiders-Perspective-High-...
'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
21–30 of 157 posts
Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#22I wonder if they're using some kind of EDFA or other amplifier for that delay spool. For 350µsec we're talking at least 14.3dB of loss going through that thing, in other words, only 3.7% of the signal is coming out the end in the best case scenario.
Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#23Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#24If you're wondering what IEX becoming a full blown exchange means to you, well it probably doesn't matter at all. They have been operating for some time already as an ATS, today they are now part of the RegNMS protected quote, meaning that up until today, brokers did not have to route orders to them. it also allows them to have companies "list" on their exchange, though I don't know of any companies that are planning…
This is the thing when I see wall street, and specifically high frequency trading vilified. Income inequality, the plight of the middle class, etc has almost nothing to do with that kind of financial maneuvering. Getting rid of high speed trading won't affect the average person really at all - but yet it's constantly vilified.
As a mostly lay person, for me it's vilified because my understanding of it is that HFT has a significant advantage over my own personal trading, and that through this advantage HFTs are able to make "more" profits than would be possible without HFT. My brain tells me that some of these profits are likely at my own trades' expense, and that while markets and economies rise and fall, my own profits are negatively impacted by HFT.
That may not be accurate, but that's why I personally feel uncomfortable with HFT.
Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#25Was the 30 mile cable necessary to create a speed bump. Seems to me a few lines of code would have worked.
Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the thing when I see wall street, and specifically high frequency trading vilified. Income inequality, the plight of the middle class, etc has almost nothing to do with that kind of financial maneuvering. Getting rid of high speed trading won't affect the average person really at all - but yet it's constantly vilified.
As a mostly lay person, for me it's vilified because my understanding of it is that HFT has a significant advantage over my own personal trading, and that through this advantage HFTs are able to make "more" profits than would be possible without HFT. My brain tells me that some of these profits are likely at my own trades' expense, and that while markets and economies rise and fall, my own profits are negatively impa…
Rather than seeing HFTs as competing against you, a more accurate model is to see various firms competing against each other to service your needs at the lowest possible cost. These firms used to be staffed with expensive and slow humans, but by automating they are able to deliver a service to you at a much lower cost than was previously possible.
The story of automation in the financial markets is similar to the story of automation in many other businesses.
Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#27Was the 30 mile cable necessary to create a speed bump. Seems to me a few lines of code would have worked.
30 miles of cable gives your customers proof the speed bump will not go away with a software change.
Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#28Was the 30 mile cable necessary to create a speed bump. Seems to me a few lines of code would have worked.
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Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#29Was the 30 mile cable necessary to create a speed bump. Seems to me a few lines of code would have worked.
Sure it would work, but with substantially more variance than a cable.
Re: 'Flash Boys' IEX stock exchange opens for business
#30I've read both sides of the argument about the IEX delay, and my common sense tells me you cannot try and put the genie back in the bottle.
If technology exists, has been discovered, you cannot thwart it by trying to mask it by retarding it.
It think it is ironic that an exchange, IEX, founded with one of its aims being to level the playing field by calling out HFT as 'wrong' or 'unfair', and yet allow for their dynamic trades to bypass their 350 us delay is an example of we don't need it/we do need it.
People cry out about HFT being a game for the super players only, but out of it comes innovation - faster switches, well-honed programming tricks, hardware and software that eventually make their way to other uses. Sort of how the military and porn industry pushed a lot of tech we take for granted today.