[galen211]

So bottom line, the people paid millions of dollars per year by banks to understand the market have to ask IT for an explanation of the market? Hmmm...

[revelation]

I was getting the same impression. Surely these traders couldn't be so dense?

This isn't even necessarily a HFT issue. If I go look at the quote for a stock on Google Finance, the only thing I'm completely sure of is that the value displayed is not in fact the accurate price. It's a reflection of the past.

[jim_greco]

It's rather comical how few fixed income traders at banks actually understand how the underlying markets work and interact with each other.

[moomin]

What developers do at banks is underestimated (and under compensated). Deep business knowledge is just the tip of the iceberg.