Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Michael Lewis explains how The Stock Market is Rigged








This month marks the fifth anniversary of the current bull market on Wall Street, making it one of the longest and strongest in history. Yet U.S. stock ownership is at a record low and less than half of Americans trust banks and financial services. And in the last two weeks, the New York attorney general and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington have both launched investigations into high-frequency computerized stock trading that now controls more than half the market.
The probes were announced just ahead of a much anticipated book on the subject by best-selling author Michael Lewis called "Flash Boys." In it, Lewis argues that the stock market is now rigged to benefit a group of insiders that have made tens of billions of dollars exploiting computerized trading. The story is told through an unlikely cast of characters who figured out what was going on and have devised a plan to correct it. It could have a huge impact on Wall Street. Tonight, Michael Lewis talks about it for the first time.
Michael Lewis is not talking about the stock market that you see on television every day. That ceased to be the center of U.S. financial activity years ago, and exists today mostly as a photo op. This is the stock market that Lewis is talking about; the one where most of the trades take place now, inside hundreds of thousands of these black boxes located at more than 60 public and private exchanges, where billions of dollars in stock change hands every day with little or no public documentation. The trades are being made by thousands of robot computers, programmed to buy and sell every stock on the market at speeds 100 times faster than you can blink an eye. A system so complex, it's all but invisible.

2 comments:

  1. I tried to listen to this twice, but without the video controls and the ability to control volume, pause etc, I just switched out. Get real, and only post with video controls or I won't be listening again. I always leave sites that offer no controls.
    I'm sure I am not alone .. we are many.

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  2. IT'S SURPRISING THAT THESE BIG FUND MANAGERS ARE JUST NOW FINDING OUT ABOUT HIGH FREQUENCY TRADING. IT HAS BEEN COMMON KNOWLEDGE AMONG ALTERNATIVE NEWSLETTERS AND WEBSITES FOR YEARS.

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