High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
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Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#2I think financial industry programmers are at the leading edge of this phenomenon (much like quants were the leading edge of programmers being paid for value rather than for hours), because they're the programmers who can most easily demonstrate that their code directly made a company millions. They're not the end of it by a long shot.
Take A/B testing, analytics, conversion optimization, etc. If you are good at these, you can generate several million dollars of value over the course of a week. If you can credibly offer the prospect of results like that, some companies will pay you very well indeed.
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#3This is an extreme example of why you don't screw people over, even if you lack empathy.
Nobody likes to be screwed over, but most people take it in exchange for other perks (job security, for one). But people have a screw threshold, and if you cross it, this is what happens.
Now, this is not the main reason not be a jackass -- on the other side of the spectrum, you usually get much in return for being nice (if only for just differentiating yourself from everyone else) -- but that's another story.
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#4A market for trading perception of value should be regulated to increments of days or weeks, not minutes.
The current structure for valuating securities does absolutely no good for our society. Not that it's overly evil or anything, it's just pointless, a massive waste of time and money, and is a cancer on our economic system. It's got to be a thrilling thing to code for though.
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#5A market for trading perception of value should be regulated to increments of days or weeks, not minutes. The current structure for valuating securities does absolutely no good for our society. Not that it's overly evil or anything, it's just pointless, a massive waste of time and money, and is a cancer on our economic system. It's got to be a thrilling thing to code for though.
Minute trading introduces very high levels of liquidity to the market.
Your thinking represents a common fallacy: "I cannot immediately see any benefit to X, therefore X is pointless / should be abolished".
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#6A market for trading perception of value should be regulated to increments of days or weeks, not minutes. The current structure for valuating securities does absolutely no good for our society. Not that it's overly evil or anything, it's just pointless, a massive waste of time and money, and is a cancer on our economic system. It's got to be a thrilling thing to code for though.
Minute trading introduces very high levels of liquidity to the market. Your thinking represents a common fallacy: "I cannot immediately see any benefit to X, therefore X is pointless / should be abolished".
Is more liquidity always better? (It's an honest question - I have no idea myself).
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#7A market for trading perception of value should be regulated to increments of days or weeks, not minutes. The current structure for valuating securities does absolutely no good for our society. Not that it's overly evil or anything, it's just pointless, a massive waste of time and money, and is a cancer on our economic system. It's got to be a thrilling thing to code for though.
Minute trading introduces very high levels of liquidity to the market. Your thinking represents a common fallacy: "I cannot immediately see any benefit to X, therefore X is pointless / should be abolished".
However it also adds high levels of volatility and self-organizing behavior (i.e. trends that feed on other trends, not on underlying signals). One might add another fallacy: "The market does X, therefore X is good".
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#8>He says one group was generating $100,000 a day from his high-frequency trading software and paying him $150,000 a year.
I'm not saying I don't want the guy to have a higher salary, but there's an implied fallacy here. It seems he should be paid relative not to how much value his code generates, but to how hard it would be to replace him.
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Minute trading introduces very high levels of liquidity to the market. Your thinking represents a common fallacy: "I cannot immediately see any benefit to X, therefore X is pointless / should be abolished".
However it also adds high levels of volatility and self-organizing behavior (i.e. trends that feed on other trends, not on underlying signals). One might add another fallacy: "The market does X, therefore X is good".
I didn't say it was good, I said that discarding something merely because you see a drawback and no benefits is foolish.
You are right about the feedback loops though.
Re: High-Frequency Programmers Revolt Over Pay
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Minute trading introduces very high levels of liquidity to the market. Your thinking represents a common fallacy: "I cannot immediately see any benefit to X, therefore X is pointless / should be abolished".
Is more liquidity always better? (It's an honest question - I have no idea myself).
Imagine liquidity as tank full of fuel in your car. The possibilities of going with a full tank are endless. More fuel than tank's holding capacity is pretty much useless.