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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
Meh. I felt that this dragged on and the author was repetitive in his criticism of high frequency trading, big banks, and the stock exchanges who enabled bad behavior. It didn’t have the shock value or compelling storytelling I’ve come to expect from the author. Perhaps this would have been more interesting if I had read it when it first came out many years ago.
Another lucid real-life page turner from Michael Lewis. Follow the band of rebels from when they detect the high-frequency trading shakedown to the creation of a new stock exchange - IEX - with a novel mission.
This isn't as "flashy" (pun fully intended) as The Big Short, but it's another piece in the Wall Street puzzle showing how we reached the 2008 crash with so few people noticing it heading our way.
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
funny
informative
medium-paced
Engagingly written, but his thesis that HFT is somehow intrinsically dishonest is not supported by the events he describes. Clearly he should actually be mad about gross malfeasance on the part of brokers, who if HFT firms were actually evil, should be the ones responsible for figuring out if cutting secret deals with them is a Faustian bargain. He loves writing the people in large financial institutions as naive and myopic, but I think this is extremely generous when it’s very obvious brokers were willfully screwing their clients.
For a book supposedly about HFT, it’s also notable he does not actually do any broader discussion of other non-frontrunning strategies, and besides 1-2 mentions of exploiting correlation being a valid use of speed in trading, I get the impression he either does not know or does not care about the actual nature of quant finance beyond this specific set of strategies. He discusses the infrastructure for low latency between exchanges like it’s entirely for frontrunning, which is just not a reasonable assumption. Who among us really knows, but I choose to believe 9 times out of 10 these strategies are at worst harmless to the market.
Despite my disagreements with his thesis, this is an enjoyable read, if perhaps not as well presented or cohesive as The Big Short. Highly recommend.
For a book supposedly about HFT, it’s also notable he does not actually do any broader discussion of other non-frontrunning strategies, and besides 1-2 mentions of exploiting correlation being a valid use of speed in trading, I get the impression he either does not know or does not care about the actual nature of quant finance beyond this specific set of strategies. He discusses the infrastructure for low latency between exchanges like it’s entirely for frontrunning, which is just not a reasonable assumption. Who among us really knows, but I choose to believe 9 times out of 10 these strategies are at worst harmless to the market.
Despite my disagreements with his thesis, this is an enjoyable read, if perhaps not as well presented or cohesive as The Big Short. Highly recommend.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced
I was surprised that I liked this book, and that says a lot for the quality of the writing and storytelling. This book is notable for highlighting one of those rare moments when someone rejects a safe and well-paying job because they see something wrong with the system they are involved in. Many of the men featured act against their own self-interest because it was the right thing to do for others. It's amazing they had to lie about their idealism and talk about greed they did not feel in order to be trusted by others in Wall Street. It also highlights the difficulties in regulating and prosecuting a highly technical business. How can you have a jury of your peers when there are not 12 people that can even explain what you are doing? Really well done and an easy read.