4 ms·

and of course that also is only possible, when they know the exact time of when the news would go out. So that, they can time their activity just milliseconds b

and of course that also is only possible, when they know the exact time of when the news would go out. So that, they can time their activity just milliseconds before that, using tech.

smcl 14y ago
Well it seems to be known that the report is due for 10.30am, so it is possible. Just an additional possibility, though nanex are far more experienced in explaining odd activity in the markets than I am :)
- rikacomet 14y ago
  yes, I saw that, but think it in this way, that its a very unreasonable way, to give the time in advance. Its better for investers to have some luck with this, if the time is not given in advance, just the day roughly. The news will drop at any time during the 12 hours before or after the given day. This would cut the advantage those hardwired trading machines have, that do tons of trades in few seconds or even milliseconds. This should be one of the reforms against such things, in the interest of common folk investors.
  - svachalek 14y ago
    If your idea of investing involves reacting to news and trading stocks/bonds/commodities/derivatives on internationally automated markets then just donate all your money to a good cause because at least then you'll get a tax deduction out of it.
tazzy531 14y ago
For a lot of these economic numbers and earnings report, they are provided to news organizations prior to the announcement with instructions that the information cannot be released prior to a certain time. So, for this example, that time was 10:30AM. The moment it hits that time, the reports get pushed out into the newswires and reported on-air. This allows the reporters to digest the numbers and figure out how to report it.
- analog 14y ago
  So news organizations get this financially sensitive information before traders? Seems an almost too obvious way to make a quick buck.
  - javert 14y ago
    Outsider here, but I can't think of a good reason to give this info to news people before traders, and as the parent said, there are obvious bad reasons.
    - tazzy531 14y ago
      Much of the news ia a facade. Reporters often get things like economic numbers and speeches prior to the event. Things like the State of the Union Address and candidate speeches are usually provided to the press beforehand so that they can package together a story. Next time you watch a major political speech, listen to the pundits prior to the speech. They will talk about all the things that the candidates are about to say. With regards to economic numbers, there's very good reasons for them to do it this way (pre-released to media and embargoed). If it is not pre-released, reporters will need to take time to report the numbers which gives certain people an advantage. For example, if you're monitoring Bloomberg for the CPI and the reporter is a slow typer, a person monitoring Reuters would have an advantage over you. Secondly, this forces a situation where reporters are in a hurry to get the numbers out which could potentially lead to errors. With these types of numbers, an error could have impact of billions of dollars in trades.
  - ig1 14y ago
    Yes, but they have strong motivation not to abuse it. I've seen one case where an news org broke an embargo due to fat fingering a release, that news org lost early access privileges for a year as did every sister company that belonged to the same news group. If you specialize in financial news losing numbers is a huge deal, you'll lose thousands of customers over it. And when those customers are often $1000/month subscribers it can easily mean a financial loss of tens of millions of dollars. Within news organizations the information is typically restricted to 1-2 named individuals who have restrictions on trading. If they leak the information they can generally be criminally prosecuted.

and of course that also is only possible, when they know the exact time of when the news would go out. So that, they can time their activity just milliseconds before that, using tech.

smcl 14y ago

Well it seems to be known that the report is due for 10.30am, so it is possible. Just an additional possibility, though nanex are far more experienced in explaining odd activity in the markets than I am :)

rikacomet 14y ago
yes, I saw that, but think it in this way, that its a very unreasonable way, to give the time in advance. Its better for investers to have some luck with this, if the time is not given in advance, just the day roughly. The news will drop at any time during the 12 hours before or after the given day. This would cut the advantage those hardwired trading machines have, that do tons of trades in few seconds or even milliseconds. This should be one of the reforms against such things, in the interest of common folk investors.
- svachalek 14y ago
  If your idea of investing involves reacting to news and trading stocks/bonds/commodities/derivatives on internationally automated markets then just donate all your money to a good cause because at least then you'll get a tax deduction out of it.

tazzy531 14y ago

For a lot of these economic numbers and earnings report, they are provided to news organizations prior to the announcement with instructions that the information cannot be released prior to a certain time. So, for this example, that time was 10:30AM. The moment it hits that time, the reports get pushed out into the newswires and reported on-air. This allows the reporters to digest the numbers and figure out how to report it.

analog 14y ago
So news organizations get this financially sensitive information before traders? Seems an almost too obvious way to make a quick buck.
- javert 14y ago
  Outsider here, but I can't think of a good reason to give this info to news people before traders, and as the parent said, there are obvious bad reasons.
  - tazzy531 14y ago
    Much of the news ia a facade. Reporters often get things like economic numbers and speeches prior to the event. Things like the State of the Union Address and candidate speeches are usually provided to the press beforehand so that they can package together a story. Next time you watch a major political speech, listen to the pundits prior to the speech. They will talk about all the things that the candidates are about to say. With regards to economic numbers, there's very good reasons for them to do it this way (pre-released to media and embargoed). If it is not pre-released, reporters will need to take time to report the numbers which gives certain people an advantage. For example, if you're monitoring Bloomberg for the CPI and the reporter is a slow typer, a person monitoring Reuters would have an advantage over you. Secondly, this forces a situation where reporters are in a hurry to get the numbers out which could potentially lead to errors. With these types of numbers, an error could have impact of billions of dollars in trades.
- ig1 14y ago
  Yes, but they have strong motivation not to abuse it. I've seen one case where an news org broke an embargo due to fat fingering a release, that news org lost early access privileges for a year as did every sister company that belonged to the same news group. If you specialize in financial news losing numbers is a huge deal, you'll lose thousands of customers over it. And when those customers are often $1000/month subscribers it can easily mean a financial loss of tens of millions of dollars. Within news organizations the information is typically restricted to 1-2 named individuals who have restrictions on trading. If they leak the information they can generally be criminally prosecuted.