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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
A good description on high frequency trading, but it's such a complicated topic that I don't think Lewis delves into the details. Mainly because they are difficult to comprehend and not many people know it in depth. Lewis has been honest in saying in interviews that the topic is dense and debatable. However, as always an entertaining read in the usual Lewis style.
This was a riveting, absorbing, and easy to understand account of the rise of electronic stock trading and how banks, brokers, and other moneymakers operate in the stock market in both upstanding and nefarious ways.
dark
informative
medium-paced
Loved this book. As review on the back cover says, definitely made my blood boil.
Now, I love a Michael Lewis book - been a fan since picking up The Big Short. He has a knack for making the complicated seem simple and understand.
And it's not just finance that he can throw the spotlight on (even if that's where he's made his name), this is the man who gave us Moneyball and The Blindside after all.
Without fail, he has managed to write books that are engaging and enthralling.
Until now.
Having been introduced to the guys who set about building the IEX exchange in a bid to level the stock market playing field, Lewis attempts to tell the tale of how IEX came into being.
In doing so, he has to not only introduce you to the various players in the game - all of whom took the long route to Wall Street it seems - but also to the world of High Frequency Traders, the boys and girls who use technology to get an edge in the murky world of the stock exchange.
In essence, they use every last nanosecond of time available to them to ensure they buy the stock before you do, and then sell it to you and an inflated price, pocketing the difference.
And it's this practice that the IEX exchange wanted to, if not end, then at least curtail.
That's the simple version.
Lewis decided to complicate it.
In doing so, it feels like he may have confused himself, because Flash Boys lacks his trademark clarity.
From the plan to lay new fibre optic cables to a man wrongly arrested for stealing code when he changed jobs, there's a lot on information here that could have been cut back on, allowing the focus of the story to actually be the HFT lot who have been ripping people off for years. Legally, too.
Obviously, none of the HFT firms would talk to Lewis, hence this one-sided look at the story, dealing only with those trying to tackle it from the outside (and, by default, not really grasping what happens on the inside).
And then we get to the final chapter.
Now, either this was written by someone else or Lewis forgot what he was talking about because it not only fails to provide any conclusions it goes off at such a tangent i can't be sure it's not from a different book.
Somewhere in here, is a fascinating tale of another great Wall Street scam.
This isn't it though.
And it's not just finance that he can throw the spotlight on (even if that's where he's made his name), this is the man who gave us Moneyball and The Blindside after all.
Without fail, he has managed to write books that are engaging and enthralling.
Until now.
Having been introduced to the guys who set about building the IEX exchange in a bid to level the stock market playing field, Lewis attempts to tell the tale of how IEX came into being.
In doing so, he has to not only introduce you to the various players in the game - all of whom took the long route to Wall Street it seems - but also to the world of High Frequency Traders, the boys and girls who use technology to get an edge in the murky world of the stock exchange.
In essence, they use every last nanosecond of time available to them to ensure they buy the stock before you do, and then sell it to you and an inflated price, pocketing the difference.
And it's this practice that the IEX exchange wanted to, if not end, then at least curtail.
That's the simple version.
Lewis decided to complicate it.
In doing so, it feels like he may have confused himself, because Flash Boys lacks his trademark clarity.
From the plan to lay new fibre optic cables to a man wrongly arrested for stealing code when he changed jobs, there's a lot on information here that could have been cut back on, allowing the focus of the story to actually be the HFT lot who have been ripping people off for years. Legally, too.
Obviously, none of the HFT firms would talk to Lewis, hence this one-sided look at the story, dealing only with those trying to tackle it from the outside (and, by default, not really grasping what happens on the inside).
And then we get to the final chapter.
Now, either this was written by someone else or Lewis forgot what he was talking about because it not only fails to provide any conclusions it goes off at such a tangent i can't be sure it's not from a different book.
Somewhere in here, is a fascinating tale of another great Wall Street scam.
This isn't it though.
Fantastically good read! This book explains why retail investors haven't got a hope of consistently beating the market and the insiders who work on Wall Street. Although the behavior of the Flashboys isn't illegal, it certainly isn't moral either. I believe the appropriate description is cheating by tilting the market in their favor. There is little to no incentive from the insiders to stop this and it appears that everyone is simply trying to figure out who to do it themselves without getting caught. That one big investment bank chose not to follow this path doesn't really inspire me - rather, I'm despondent at the thought that only one bank chose not to cheat once it understood how the system is rigged. For the rest of us mere mortals, index investing seems to be the investing method which will result in the least amount of fleecing of our hard-earned money.
This book explains the genealogy of High-Frequency Trading (HFT) and its disastrous impact on the public. It educates us on how it came about, who helped build it, who are the predators, and thankfully, what has saved us (Hint: IEX)
You want to celebrate the list of heroes who set up the IEX listed in the acknowledgments.
You want to celebrate the list of heroes who set up the IEX listed in the acknowledgments.
challenging
informative
fast-paced
Fascinating look at the high-frequency trading world and a new type of stock exchange set up to attract investors looking to avoid being exploited by those traders. In places I wish he had taken the time to explain more of the details of how HFT makes it money.
It was also obvious from the epilogue that the author only has a limited understanding of the realities of computer administration and software development, but the book is fascinating nonetheless.
It was also obvious from the epilogue that the author only has a limited understanding of the realities of computer administration and software development, but the book is fascinating nonetheless.
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
I don't 5 star books very often. It's really a 4.5 because the subject matter is so new that there isn't a "resolution" to the story - which is not the fault of the author. The author has to revert back to a not-really-relevant to the book story line for a resolution, but the story is ongoing. I will read the next book that Michael Lewis writes on the exchanges.
As a layperson, I knew of NYSE, NASDAQ, and the Chicago exchanges. I did not know about the other new upstarts, why there were new upstarts, or the "dark pools" that operate within banks. It is hard to review this book without spoilers, but I don't want to put any spoilers in to encourage people to read this and pick up a copy.
On several occasions I slammed the book shut and uttered a four-letter word. On other occasions I had to re-read (literally, go back and re-read) passages to make sure I had read them correctly.
The notion that there are predatory, pretty-sh***y high-frequency traders (HFTs) is expected. You can't fault a shark for being a shark. The knowledge that this is behavior is allowed or encouraged by larger Wall Street banks so they can make a buck (or because they are doing something similarly shady in dark pools), and that Congress has also not stepped in (yet), is forehead-slappingly maddening.
If you are a lover of technology, programming or mathematics, read this book. If you want to learn more about recent crashes, read the book. If you want to learn about micro-crashes that now occur regularly (but are not reported on), read the book. If you want to learn about a whole sector of the market that never makes the papers, read the book. If you want to get really, really, really angry, read the book. If you have part of your retirement in mutual funds, read the book. If you want to know who the "good guys" or at least lawful neutrals are, read the book. If you want to learn about the spread of American-style exchanges to the global markets, read the book. If you want to learn more about how the markets work, read the book. If you want to see how utterly useless (this I knew beforehand, but the book reaffirms it) any "reporting" on the day's market activity is, and why you can pretty much toss any exchange-related news, read the book (it's like reporting the day's global average temperature and then trying to figure out how much it rained in Topeka, KS).
I liked this book so much I read the Acknowledgements, just because I wanted to keep reading more of it.
One thing I did take away from this book is that the only reason action was eventually taken to combat these predatory HFTs is because it was a very, very small # of actual people making a ton of money, not something that was making everyone a ton of money - by Wall Street standards. I think that, had this been established banks engaging in identical predatory HFT, nothing would have come of it.
Fascinating book.
As a layperson, I knew of NYSE, NASDAQ, and the Chicago exchanges. I did not know about the other new upstarts, why there were new upstarts, or the "dark pools" that operate within banks. It is hard to review this book without spoilers, but I don't want to put any spoilers in to encourage people to read this and pick up a copy.
On several occasions I slammed the book shut and uttered a four-letter word. On other occasions I had to re-read (literally, go back and re-read) passages to make sure I had read them correctly.
The notion that there are predatory, pretty-sh***y high-frequency traders (HFTs) is expected. You can't fault a shark for being a shark. The knowledge that this is behavior is allowed or encouraged by larger Wall Street banks so they can make a buck (or because they are doing something similarly shady in dark pools), and that Congress has also not stepped in (yet), is forehead-slappingly maddening.
If you are a lover of technology, programming or mathematics, read this book. If you want to learn more about recent crashes, read the book. If you want to learn about micro-crashes that now occur regularly (but are not reported on), read the book. If you want to learn about a whole sector of the market that never makes the papers, read the book. If you want to get really, really, really angry, read the book. If you have part of your retirement in mutual funds, read the book. If you want to know who the "good guys" or at least lawful neutrals are, read the book. If you want to learn about the spread of American-style exchanges to the global markets, read the book. If you want to learn more about how the markets work, read the book. If you want to see how utterly useless (this I knew beforehand, but the book reaffirms it) any "reporting" on the day's market activity is, and why you can pretty much toss any exchange-related news, read the book (it's like reporting the day's global average temperature and then trying to figure out how much it rained in Topeka, KS).
I liked this book so much I read the Acknowledgements, just because I wanted to keep reading more of it.
One thing I did take away from this book is that the only reason action was eventually taken to combat these predatory HFTs is because it was a very, very small # of actual people making a ton of money, not something that was making everyone a ton of money - by Wall Street standards. I think that, had this been established banks engaging in identical predatory HFT, nothing would have come of it.
Fascinating book.