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Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

Strangely enough, I had never heard of a "darkpool" until today. I bought Flash Boys at the airport bookstore earlier, and read it on the plane just now. And tonight I find a reference to darkpools on the HN front-page. Hmmm. Truth really is stranger than fiction sometimes.

Anyway, FWIW, if anybody here hasn't read Flash Boys by Michael Lewis, it's a pretty interesting read that covers some ground related to the content of this article: HFT, dark-pools, etc. I understand that it's not without some controversy, but I found it damn interesting all the same.

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As someone who has worked in the industry, Flash Boys is literally the worst intro you could find into electronic trading. Dark Pools by Scott Patterson is much, much better (and even it gets basic facts incorrect).

Agreed, as someone who worked in HFT and thus has a positive bias towards it, I found Dark Pools to be an extremely informative and factual historical account of the industry even if the author's opinions disagree with mine.

Flash Boys however I can't even get through because the author backs an extremist negative position with completely incorrect facts. I fill with seething rage every time I realize how much more public exposure Flash Boys gets.

I wouldn't say he backs an extremist negative position. In fact, if you read carefully, he is quite adamant in his assertion that HFT is great. As long as it is in the service of large buy side institutions he has no problem with it. If on the other hand, HFT firms dare to upend the relationship with traditional ibanks, then he gets upset.

Well, if it has nothing else going for it, it was interesting enough to pique my curiosity and make me want to read more. To my way of thinking, any book that accomplishes at least that, is somewhat worthwhile.

The concept is clearly in the cultural zeitgeist ... heck, the recent Jack Ryan movie had this as a major part of the plot.

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