[ShabbyDoo]

The article suggests that more than a few seconds of privileged access to an important economic indicator would have little value due to the speed of algorithmic market participants. I disagree. Imagine that you knew this morning's unemployment number a second before everyone else. Could you have become a bazillionaire? No. Your potential windfall would be limited by how much of a position you could take on without moving the prices of instruments past the point of where they likely would end-up after the general availability of this economic indicator. Order books are fairly light right before a number is released because most participants presume themselves to be the victim of a better-informed trader if the option they "wrote" by putting an order on the book is exercised. So, you as a well-informed trader would have limited opportunity to take on position without paying at least as much as the likely value of that position after everyone knows what you knew a second beforehand. Conversely, imagine that you knew a day or two ahead of time what this morning's unemployment number would be. You could slowly build up a huge position and make orders of magnitude more.