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Mysterious Algorithm Was 4% of Trading Activity Last Week

Posted by Soulskill on from the robot-overlords-doing-a-test-run dept.

concealment sends this excerpt from CNBC: "A single mysterious computer program that placed orders — and then subsequently canceled them — made up 4 percent of all quote traffic in the U.S. stock market last week, according to the top tracker of high-frequency trading activity. The motive of the algorithm is still unclear. The program placed orders in 25-millisecond bursts involving about 500 stocks, according to Nanex, a market data firm. The algorithm never executed a single trade, and it abruptly ended at about 10:30 a.m. ET Friday."

3 of 617 comments (clear)

  1. Truth or dare... by ccguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hear the production IT department of a big trader had been drinking (something about the bonuses, don't know if they were celebrating or trying to forget) and started to play truth or dare.

    The game was interrupted when the boss arrived (what he called "first thing in the morning").

    1. Re:Truth or dare... by organgtool · · Score: 5, Funny

      That sounds awesome! As a solitary private investor, how can I leverage HFT to make money?

  2. my bad lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    forgot to exit my Do While loop :) had to ctrl+al+del