High-Speed Firms Now Oversee Almost All Stocks at NYSE Floor
&quot;... millions of trades a day&quot;.<p>What is that ? How can that be the reflection of what&#x27;s going on in the &#x27;real&#x27; economy ?<p>I interviewed at an HFT firm once and they were doing kernel-bypass networking, latency measured in nanoseconds and all kinds of really low level systems programming tasks.<p>Interesting technical challenges. Except... what does that have to do with the economy ?
Why is it that I can make money if my algo runs a microsecond faster than yours ?<p>Why is that time delta measured in money ? I know there&#x27;s the very rational technical explanation of how the first to react executes the trade, but just step back and look at the bigger picture here - what the fuck are you guys really doing ?<p>Are the people writing these algorithms even remotely thinking that the trades can ruin or starve millions ?<p>Are you even considering that these high frequency &quot;trading&quot; systems have an actual impact on the planet, the air, the water, etc ?<p>Of course no. They don&#x27;t give a fuck. In fact, you can only survive in this industry by not giving a single fuck. Otherwise you have to look at yourself and realize what a parasite you really are.<p>The stock market made sense when securities actually reflected the &quot;real world&quot; performance of companies.<p>Now it&#x27;s all reversed - price determines company performance - it&#x27;s like all companies work for the stock market itself.<p>I don&#x27;t like these guys.  A bunch of crooks and gamblers who have no idea what they are doing, while everyone thinks they do.<p>That&#x27;s why the prognosis for the world economy is pretty bleak - because the insanity is institutionalized already and we have no idea how to stop it.