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Comment by brnt | Hacker News Reader

Ah, the ol' liquidity spiel. One wonders how markets were even possible before HFT...

Markets were possible. But what about the current offering of ETFs and similar products? Despite all the fancy talk, many HFT firms are just market makers for the products that enable average joes to invest well and cheaply.

You don't have to be that old to remember how terrible the experience used to be, and how easily even sophisticated individuals were ripped off at every point of the process.

Was that like Gomez Addams with the paper ticker coming out of that glass domed contraption, calling his guy to buy Consolidated Lint?

> You don't have to be that old to remember how terrible the experience used to be

I guess I'm not old enough. What was the system like? How did sophisticated traders get ripped off?

I explained that. It doesn't matter whether it's a computer doing it or a guy in a jacket, but once one guy gets a computer all the market makers need it.

So take away the computers. Or more realistically, batch run all orders once an hour.

Retail consumers aren't exactly disadvantaged by the gradual narrowing of spreads, so what are you trying to fix? The latency arms-race is exclusively professionals fighting each other.

Getting back on topic, being a software developer for an HFT shop can be a lot of fun: serious technical challenges and a rapid feedback loop in a role where you may be the revenue stream rather than just another cost center. But posters highlighting NIH syndrome are spot on: you risk pigeonholing yourself.

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