Outside of the specialized world of stock trading, many retail investors probably do not know that an estimated 80% of US stock trading volume is based on computer-programmed buy and sell orders. In other words, 4 out of every 5 dollars flowing through stock exchanges has no human decision-maker behind it. Stocks trade only a programmed response to preset algorithms. At this point, SkyNet completely dominates stocks.
How did this come about? High Frequency Trading firms (HFTs) seek to profit from predictable responses of some shares to the movement of other shares and market inputs, but HFT computers need to execute trading orders in fractions of seconds in order to benefit from their ability to see the immediate predictable future. Since humans cannot act fast enough, the machines have been programmed to trade in their place.
When things in stocks get really screwy, as they did this morning, and as they did most dramatically during the 2010 Flash Crash, we’re reminded that the humans are no longer in charge.
Lobbyists for the HFT firms have already come back from the future and are visiting the offices of our Congressman one by one to eliminate any Sarah or John Conners that seek to regulate HFT’s role in US stock markets.
Please see related book reviews:
Inside the Black Box, by Rishi Narang
Critique of Flash Boys by Pete Kovac
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