[ptah]

yes. the derivatives built on top of bad home loans caused the contagion. it would have been close to a non-event if there were no derivatives based on the bad homeloans.

https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0210/did-derivat...

https://www.thebalance.com/role-of-derivatives-in-creating-m...

[kenneth]

The derivatives were traded in massive blocks, not in high-frequency transactions where fees adding up matters.