Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NJ Server Farms Remake the US Financial Markets

Posted by Soulskill on from the flops-to-dollars dept.

1sockchuck writes "The engine of Wall Street has shifted from the stock exchange floor to data centers in New Jersey, where computer-driven trading now accounts for 56 percent of all trading activity, according to the New York Times. 'While this Tron landscape is dominated by the titans of Wall Street, it affects nearly everyone who owns shares of stock or mutual funds, or who has a stake in a pension fund or works for a public company,' the Times writes. 'For better or for worse, part of your wealth, your livelihood, is throbbing through these wires.' There are also photos of the data centers powering the high-speed trading operations, while 60 Minutes has video of a huge new 'liquidity center' run by the NYSE."

4 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. short term skimming by FuckingNickName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And nothing of value was gained.

    1. Re:short term skimming by pyite · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We paid for your dumb errors in the subprime crisis, so now that you are creating speculation on yet another imaginary value (physical closeness to the servers of the stock exchange ? Really ? Changes in the value of a company on the millisecond scale ? Are you serious ? ) you better show your whole scheme.

      Whose dumb errors in the subprime crisis? Those errors were made by multiple parties. First and foremost, the people buying more than they could afford. It's taboo to demonize "Main Street," but let's face it, if people could, or chose to, do basic math, they would have realized they couldn't afford what they were buying. Second, stupid mortgage companies who relied on people's word that they could afford things. Third, those who thought tranching baskets of mortgages and pricing the tranches using default correlations for each tranche that were advantageous just to that tranche rather than rooted in reality.

      These three groups of people have almost nothing in common with those who trade equities and equities derivatives. So, please, don't put two things you don't understand into the same bucket simply because both are products of "Wall Street."

      --

      "Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman

  2. I Can't Help But Think... by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...that automated trading has and will cause more trouble than it is worth to the overall economy.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  3. Re:Common View, Common Error by e065c8515d206cb0e190 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No offense, but if you need a definition of bid-ask spread, you need to learn the basics before criticizing HFTs.