Review: Flash Boys by Michael Lewis
-
cursillo86
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 17 May 2016, 21:16
- Bookshelf Size: 229
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-cursillo86.html
- Reading Device: B00IKPYKWG
Review: Flash Boys by Michael Lewis
This is a compelling book to read and fun because Michael Lewis tells a complicated tale through personal stories. There are heroes and villains. Under the OBC rating system, I would assign 3.5 stars to this book.
The difference between corruption in our country and corruption in other countries is that we legitimize it. That way it makes it harder for people to understand the wrong in our daily lives because it is "legal." Even laws and regulations intended to do good can become pernicious causes of inequality because the people developing and supporting the regulations do not understand the total environment in which the regulations will operate. For a good example of this, I recommend reading Flash Boys by Michael Lewis with its special attention given to Reg NMS implemented by the SEC in 2007. That regulation allowed, even incentivized, high frequency traders to scalp untold billions of dollars from U.S. stock investors. All the big banks jumped in as well, hiding what they did in the so-called "dark pools" of trading, where they did not have transparency of their transactions.
There is one basic equation learned in junior high school science or math that helps to keep the complicated material in this book straight: Speed times time equals distance. For the book, it is better to express it this way: Distance divided by speed equals time. Michael Lewis describes wrong-doing that takes place in transactions that flash not in seconds, but in milliseconds or microseconds. And guess what? Thanks to the fact that technology has gotten ahead of most people in the financial markets and all of the rule propagators trying to regulate them, the wrong doing was/is perfectly legal.
The real story in this book is that of the people who began to suspect that something was amiss, doggedly investigated their suspicions at great personal cost, and subsequently struggled to build the weapon to defeat the arch-villains. Michael Lewis introduces us to these real-life heroes. Many of the heroes and villains received their education outside of the United States and learned the math and computer skills necessary to wage war on the fields of advanced technology. The indictment of the educational system in the United States is a theme not developed in the book but hinted at, and it is a theme that has worried me for some time. If I am projecting this, I apologize to the author and readers.
I regard this as a "must read" for everyone. We all have spent way too much time in La-La Land in the United States. History, from which we do not learn, and the future, which portends great disparity and inequality, are eating the time line behind and ahead of us. We need the heroes, especially the ones who lead. We need to be them.
The difference between corruption in our country and corruption in other countries is that we legitimize it. That way it makes it harder for people to understand the wrong in our daily lives because it is "legal." Even laws and regulations intended to do good can become pernicious causes of inequality because the people developing and supporting the regulations do not understand the total environment in which the regulations will operate. For a good example of this, I recommend reading Flash Boys by Michael Lewis with its special attention given to Reg NMS implemented by the SEC in 2007. That regulation allowed, even incentivized, high frequency traders to scalp untold billions of dollars from U.S. stock investors. All the big banks jumped in as well, hiding what they did in the so-called "dark pools" of trading, where they did not have transparency of their transactions.
There is one basic equation learned in junior high school science or math that helps to keep the complicated material in this book straight: Speed times time equals distance. For the book, it is better to express it this way: Distance divided by speed equals time. Michael Lewis describes wrong-doing that takes place in transactions that flash not in seconds, but in milliseconds or microseconds. And guess what? Thanks to the fact that technology has gotten ahead of most people in the financial markets and all of the rule propagators trying to regulate them, the wrong doing was/is perfectly legal.
The real story in this book is that of the people who began to suspect that something was amiss, doggedly investigated their suspicions at great personal cost, and subsequently struggled to build the weapon to defeat the arch-villains. Michael Lewis introduces us to these real-life heroes. Many of the heroes and villains received their education outside of the United States and learned the math and computer skills necessary to wage war on the fields of advanced technology. The indictment of the educational system in the United States is a theme not developed in the book but hinted at, and it is a theme that has worried me for some time. If I am projecting this, I apologize to the author and readers.
I regard this as a "must read" for everyone. We all have spent way too much time in La-La Land in the United States. History, from which we do not learn, and the future, which portends great disparity and inequality, are eating the time line behind and ahead of us. We need the heroes, especially the ones who lead. We need to be them.
