Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by darkenergy
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
4.0
One of my co-workers used to be in the finance industry (full disclaimer: he's not a fan of Lewis) and has a very different take on high frequency trading - he sees it as the one entry point for individuals in a market otherwise dominated by increasingly merged megabanks. (He told me that I was better off sticking to index funds, not trying to play the stock market. Which makes sense.)
That said, what Lewis gets into here also describes how larger banks have co-opted technology to their own ends, as well as the small group of people trying to fight this trend by effectively rejecting technology. Like all of Lewis' work, you learn a lot, meet a lot of interesting characters, and get the sense that maybe some things should be taken with a grain of salt, because he does focus on the most interesting aspects to make his point.
The other big takeaway for me was how much of a Red Queen game banking regulations are. If banks are given an inch, they'll take a mile. They really don't merit the kind of trust that has popped up here and there since at least the Gilded Age. (I'm not at all versed in banking history before that, aside from Jackson's wanton destruction of the Bank of the United States.)
That said, what Lewis gets into here also describes how larger banks have co-opted technology to their own ends, as well as the small group of people trying to fight this trend by effectively rejecting technology. Like all of Lewis' work, you learn a lot, meet a lot of interesting characters, and get the sense that maybe some things should be taken with a grain of salt, because he does focus on the most interesting aspects to make his point.
The other big takeaway for me was how much of a Red Queen game banking regulations are. If banks are given an inch, they'll take a mile. They really don't merit the kind of trust that has popped up here and there since at least the Gilded Age. (I'm not at all versed in banking history before that, aside from Jackson's wanton destruction of the Bank of the United States.)