I see a false dichotomy here. The fact that floor brokers were dishonest doesn't imply we need to have continuous computerized trades. We could still have discrete steps and computers filling orders, right?
Right, and maybe one day the market will work that way. But
(a) what we have at the moment is still a lot better than what we had before - incremental progress!
(b) it's not at all obvious (to me) that discrete time steps would be better than what we have now. Market makers would be taking more risk, so that would quote in smaller size and at wider spreads, which could make trading more expensive for everybody.
(a) what we have at the moment is still a lot better than what we had before - incremental progress!
(b) it's not at all obvious (to me) that discrete time steps would be better than what we have now. Market makers would be taking more risk, so that would quote in smaller size and at wider spreads, which could make trading more expensive for everybody.