Wednesday, Jul 15, 2009
After an infusion of billions of taxpayer dollars to keep Wall Street banks afloat, Spitzer asks whe
Guardian: Is Goldman Sachs a blood-sucking vampire squid?
Proof, as if we needed it, that Wall Street inhabits a parallel universe. While the rate of US unemployment creeps towards double digits and businesses across the heartland struggle to stay afloat,
Posted by chris @ 12:06 AM (479 views) Add Comment
7 Comments
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1. nomad said...
"After the cataclysmic events of the past 18 months, are we simply going to allow bankers to go back to enriching themselves through an elaborate, opaque form of casino trading which is semi-detached from the rest of society?"
"After the cataclysmic events of the past 18 months, are we simply going to allow bankers to go back to enriching themselves through an elaborate, opaque form of casino trading which is semi-detached from the rest of society?"
"After the cataclysmic events of the past 18 months, are we simply going to allow bankers to go back to enriching themselves through an elaborate, opaque form of casino trading which is semi-detached from the rest of society?"
"After the cataclysmic events of the past 18 months, are we simply going to allow bankers to go back to enriching themselves through an elaborate, opaque form of casino trading which is semi-detached from the rest of society?"
2. pelethar said...
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Could you repeat it?
3. mountain goat said...
If you read this, it starts to become clear how these big guys can win when everyone else loses.
"This Is Outrageous
But first, I want to direct the attention of those in the US finance industry to a white paper written by Themis Trading, called "Toxic Equity Trading Order Flow on Wall Street." Basically, they outline why volume and volatility have jumped so much since 2007; and it's not due to the credit crisis. They estimate that 70% of the volume in today's markets is from high-frequency program trading. They outline how large brokers and funds can buy and sell a stock for the same price and still make 0.5 cents. Do that a million times a day and the money adds up. Or maybe do it 8 billion times. It requires powerful computers, complicity of the exchanges (because the exchanges get paid a lot), and highly proximate computer connections. Literally, the need for speed is so important that to play this game you have to have your servers physically at the exchange. Across the river in New Jersey is too slow. Forget Texas or California. This is a game played out in microseconds.
The retail world doesn't get to play. This is a game only for big boys who can afford to pay for the "arms" needed to fight this war. But the rest of us pay for the game, as that half cent is like a tax on transactions, not to mention the increased daily volatility, which skews pricing. Think it doesn't affect you? That "tax" is paid by mutual funds, your pension fund, and every large institution.
Frankly, this is outrageous... "
Yes blood sucking squid
4. bufferbear said...
Speechless.......................or maybe not but I don't want to type a list of profanities!
5. refusetobuy said...
@mountain goat
I followed your link thorough to the original source. Very interesting to see how algo trading works (and example are good too). Cheers.
6. mountain goat said...
@refusetobuy - I followed it to the original source too but found it too technical! I bet the sleepy SEC will ban this in a few months time when GS have refilled their coffers sufficiently. Effectively an alternative tax on everyone's investments.
7. refusetobuy said...
It's a tax on people who place a large amounts of preprogrammed buy/sell orders. This isn't everybody.