I have a question: When i finished my theoretical Physics PhD, HFT was THE way out of academia for making money in my field. I didn't follow this path as it felt at the time a pretty evil thing to do. Does HFT provide any benefits for our society?
The sharp v recovery in the markets was surprising, but not so much when you realize what's backing it. People gave credit to the wrong group. They said it was the fed, it wasn't, it was the HFT. All the fed did was add some zeros to accounts and relax some interest rates. HFT had to figure out where the money goes.
Without HFT, it likely could have taken a year for the market to recover. It would have taken forever to unravel all the changes (some ephemeral, some not) and figure out how to efficiently allocate all that money.
If I was the democrats, I'd find a way to connect the market to main street rather than try to create ftt. I believe the first country that does this will win the 21st century.
Imagine being able to come up with a business idea, partner with some friends, do a bit of proving out and publicizing your team and money just flows into it based purely on the merit of your real potential. No politics, no long lunches and dinners with VC, no irrational idiots. Just pure, unfettered meritocracy.
Or imagine having a long standing mainstreet business that gets hit with a one time, out of its control, disaster. No need to go the bank with hat in hand, the money just shows up in your account, with hyper competitive interest rates. The same could be said if you have an idea for expansion or efficiencies. Just send out a press release with a few specifics, and next day you are underwritten.
SPAC is sort of like that. Sadly, democrats have their own brand of xenophobia. They tax what they don't understand. It's very unfortunate that the GOP didn't vote with the democrats to impeach Trump. Historically, I think it will go down as the most colossal political mistake since Nixon.
One way to think about all this, is DeepMind / starcraft. AI could already out-micro any competitor, but now it's getting to a point where it can out-strategy as well.
Having tools like that to manage our markets is a very powerful tool and makes the US not only hyper efficient but a far more competitive than any other nation.
That said, the whipsaws of computers figuring out things too fast can be tough on people. pure, unfettered meritocracy can be hard for those without merit to offer.
Yang and his UBI isn't a bad idea.
Where it provides less value are traders who intentionally inject volatility. Some guy went to jail over that (flash boys)