| If you thought Flash Boys was enlightening then you didn't read carefully. He makes shit up. Take the one example of a trader that claims the market jumps just by he entering a symbol and quantity- not submitting the order. That's huge! It means espionage in a major trader's office! But since Lewis knows it's just bullshit coincidence, he just says "oooo spooky HFTs". Flash Boys: Not So Fast is a far better book. And even better, it's actually acurate. Lewis's book is just an ad for IEX, hoping to scare ignorant people into worrying about perfectly fine stuff. The star, Brad, in his first scene, is shocked, just shocked, that his 50,000 order could cause price impact. (Think: the customer paid 5 cents (2500$) to get Brad to sneakily sell the shares - obviously price impact is to be expected.) There are plenty of cross markets, and nothing stops anyone from running a 5-second auction (with simple pro rata or complicated rules like POSIT). But IEXs investors just think coiling 38mi of fiber is neater. At least it makes a cool display for data center visits.) |
I just read it on a recommendation from HN. Entertained me on a longhaul flight. Boy, does the author take apart Flash Boys. Alas, approximately no one will ever read this deconstruction.