[ExI] Efficiency of algorithmic trading

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 5:05 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 02:29:46AM -0400, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>
>> All this looks to me like a knee-jerk reaction to other people making
>
> Allright, it took me reading five books to arrive at my particular
> knee-jerk reaction.

### Written specifically to cater to knee-jerk reactions.

>
>> oodles of money in a way one does not understand - just like the
>
> It's worse -- they do it it in the way they themselves do not
> understand.

### Why should they?

>
>> demonstrably stupid yet depressingly common denigration of
>> short-sellers and speculators.
>
> Destroying retirement funds, making money off clueless small
> "investors" and bringing the system crashing down are defintely
> great value creators. I think the denigration these people deserve
> is doing jail time.

### Aww, c'mon, you are using this argumentation against
short-sellers? There is large body of research showing that
short-selling and speculation reduce price variability, smooth out
supply shocks and lead to more efficient allocation of resources
(references available on demand). "Clueless small investors", lol.

Seriously, railing against short-sellers is for me a bad diagnostic
factor, somehow didn't expect it from you.

Rafal