4 ms·

Not so if they have an (unfair) information advantage over mom-pops that allow them to move ahead of the market.

• dschobel 17y ago
  Are your mom and pop really doing high-frequency trading in their spare time or are you being facetious? In reality the people that GS wins money off of on a given day are wearing charcoal grey suits and driving ridiculous cars (just like the GS people). Your browser won't refresh the etrade website fast enough to even play their sandbox.
  • lhuang 17y ago
    Slow down tiger. I'm just trying to clarify the original point as to why people are pissy at GS and the other dealers. Obviously there are nuances to this issue, but my point still stands. The masses aren't pissy because GS turns a profit (as implied by the OP). They're pissy because they believe firms carry out unfair practices that allow them to game the system. This is true. To a degree. One example: most dealers act as brokers for smaller institutional investors (hedge funds, mutual funds, etc.) and have visibility into their trading volume, including particularly large position movements. Firms leverage this info for their own house positions and have a slight lead time against the market. Intraday the gains may be slight, but over a year they amount to hundreds of millions in profit. Given the size of their positions, firms can, and often do use their weight to manipulate market prices. Then theres the issue with the govt bailout and TARP funds... http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/225427-michael-j-golde/32385-goldman-bonuses-based-on-socialist-policies-not-capitalism http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/225427-michael-j-golde/323...