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It's not about lack of funds to hire the bright minds, it's because that's how the system is designed in the first place. The problem is that technologies such

It's not about lack of funds to hire the bright minds, it's because that's how the system is designed in the first place. The problem is that technologies such a HFT have simply accelerated the removal of the middle men, because now that the uber-wealthy have squeezed as much money out of the proletariat, they need need a new feeding ground. That feeding ground is the middle-upper class, the ones who think they are one of the good ol boys but are gonna get bitten just as hard, they just don't realize it yet. This goes for "middle-class business" too. The SEC is flattened under the weight of regulatory capture and insider trading is the norm. How could any other outcome than referenced in the article be expected? Class warfare is real and is going on right now, and the bankers and uber-wealthy (.01%) are winning.

tptacek 12y ago
Am I reading correctly that you think the elimination of middle-men in the market is a bad thing?
- arca_vorago 12y ago
  Not necessarily, but allow me to clarify. What I am talking about is the middle-level entrepreneurs, not the middle-men in the sense of add a layer so they can skim off the top. I'm saying that if you look at the numbers, I am seeing a return of monopolistic industries across the board, and this is bad for the people and consumers. When is the last time we heard about a big anti-trust suit?
  - tptacek 12y ago
    OK, because the industry we're actually talking about here was created to outcompete and eliminate actual middle-men who operated in the latter sense: they set up the market so that virtually every trade had to have their fingerprints on it, and charged exorbitant fees for that privilege.
- blumkvist 12y ago
  Middle man has come to have such a bad connotation these days. I think majority of people imagine middle men like some crooks who make a phone call or two and take a 20% cut for no work at all. This couldn't be further than the truth.
  - tptacek 12y ago
    Ok but we're clear that these particular middle-men, the human specialists that electronic market makers replaced, were in fact crooks, right?
wglb 12y ago
Well, there were over 1,800 automobile companies in the US by 1930. Now, not so many. This is an example of "go big or go home" and is as old a story as there is in business. I don't think the attribution of several meanings of "middle" is at all correct. Nor is the class warfare more evident in the Trading world than it was in the early automobile industry's early years.

tptacek 12y ago

Am I reading correctly that you think the elimination of middle-men in the market is a bad thing?

arca_vorago 12y ago
Not necessarily, but allow me to clarify. What I am talking about is the middle-level entrepreneurs, not the middle-men in the sense of add a layer so they can skim off the top. I'm saying that if you look at the numbers, I am seeing a return of monopolistic industries across the board, and this is bad for the people and consumers. When is the last time we heard about a big anti-trust suit?
- tptacek 12y ago
  OK, because the industry we're actually talking about here was created to outcompete and eliminate actual middle-men who operated in the latter sense: they set up the market so that virtually every trade had to have their fingerprints on it, and charged exorbitant fees for that privilege.
blumkvist 12y ago
Middle man has come to have such a bad connotation these days. I think majority of people imagine middle men like some crooks who make a phone call or two and take a 20% cut for no work at all. This couldn't be further than the truth.
- tptacek 12y ago
  Ok but we're clear that these particular middle-men, the human specialists that electronic market makers replaced, were in fact crooks, right?

wglb 12y ago

Well, there were over 1,800 automobile companies in the US by 1930. Now, not so many. This is an example of "go big or go home" and is as old a story as there is in business. I don't think the attribution of several meanings of "middle" is at all correct. Nor is the class warfare more evident in the Trading world than it was in the early automobile industry's early years.