[ExI] Hard Takeoff-money

[BillK]

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 3:31 PM, Keith Henson  wrote:
> BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> The point of these trading programs is to assist in making a few
>> people very, very rich and the great majority poor and unemployed.
>> Working great so far.
>
> I can easily see a disgruntled programmer writing this as retaliation
> against a hated boss.
>


That's only a theoretical possibilty. In practice impossible and
totally unlikely even if it was possible.

These trading programs are not your ordinary buy and sell order
processors like your stockbroker has access to.

They run on a very few special main dealers computers that plug in
direct to the stock exchange computers. So physical access is the
first hurdle.  Even if they stole their programs and ran off with them
(as one programmer actually did!) they cannot make use of them because
they don't have access to the special insider-only computers.

The profits from these microsecond trades go to these main dealers
accounts. There is no way a programmer could extract profits for
himself.

These programmers are *very* well paid. Yes, they are grumbling about
getting more, but they would not risk their current small fortune to
annoy their boss and risk a jail sentence. Their grumbles are hints
that they want more or they will move to another main dealer.

These  special programs effectively mean that the stock market is
broken. Outsiders have no chance against the insider dealers. You can
buy shares and gamble whether they go up or down, but nowadays it's
purely a gamble. The market is rigged.


BillK