Whether looking at the nineteenth century or now, Wall Street has always had fast traders who knew how to get the news before their competitors.
Stock Markets: High Speed Trading
High frequency trading might be an elephant in the closet. Representing perhaps 51% of all daily trading volume, speedy trading hits the headlines only when something goes wrong. But since I’ve been reading Frank Partnoy’s Wait: The Art and Science of…
Stock Markets: Should Wall Street Slow Down?
Soon after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opened yesterday, the prices of more than 140 securities moved irrationally. Some were up 150%. Though no one yet has said why, we do know that fast trading computer programs—high-frequency trades—were the…
Orderly Markets
No one has figured out the cause of the “flash crash”. Some background information might help, though, when we try to understand what happened. On May 6th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged close to 1000 points, then made up some…