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Presenting Flash Trading Detectives At Work
Back in the summer of 2010, when the porn addicts from the SEC were still trying to pin the flash crash on a lazy mutual fund out of Overland Park, Kansas, we presented a little known firm called Nanex to the world, initially for selfish reasons - to use ther empirical analysis, now undisputed except by the most entrenched HFT firms, that the May 2010 flash crash was caused by runaway algos, just as we predicted would happen in April of 2009. Yet subsequently due to their artistic flair and unprecedented originality in presenting boring forensic millisecond-level data as the work of art of a demented genius, and their ability to bring excitement to the chaotic nanosecond oscillations of a vacuum tube, Nanex became a mainstay on our pages, and their work was used extensively to portray the now daily mini-flash crashes, and ever more frequent macro ones.
Since then Nanex' work has been presented in virtually every mainstream media outlet: an outcome by which we are delighted as it means the understanding of just how broken the market is has spread far and wide, and today (belatedly) even made the front page of the Huffington Post. And the financial comedy channel still wonders why the retail investor doesn't want to trade - hint: it's not because they need more momentum, or even because they are not that dumb to jump on on a manipulated market at its all time idiotic highs - it is because everyone now understand the casino is hopelessly broken, even Joe Sixpack. Nanex is among the very few out there who are to thank for this outcome, the result of which is that Primary Dealers, prop desks and hedge funds are the only ones engaging in a game of hot potato, which gets hotter with every hundred billion in hollow liquidity injected by central banks, until the moment the potato explodes and takes out those very few still in the game.
The truth is that most of our frequent readers are very familiar with the work of Nanex, and of Eric Hunsader and his crew. It is not for them, but for everyone else who is still not been familiar with what the Wired business conference defined as "flash trading detective work" that we present the following 14 minute clip exposing the philosophy of the forensic consolidated tape detectives. But more importantly, Eric explains how his firm took otherwise boring terabytes of trading data and made it into a fascinating and informative explosion of animation, color and sound, all of which proves one thing: the equity markets have been hijacked from the humans, and are now dominated and controlled by the robots who provide a tsunami of liquidity when it is not needed, and dry up like the Gobi desert just as the market is imploding, as we all witnessed most recently during the AP hack-induced Hash Crash.
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Still waiting for a decent "terrorist" group to realize (the ELF were the last real ones, and they burnt down property, that's all, because they weren't trying to kill people, unlike the FBI sponsored plant who pipe-bombed them) that blowing up the cables from the East coast to the West coast would crash things so easily. Occam's Razor - if the "BAD GUYS" haven't done the really obvious, then they don't exist. Getting mentally challenged people to use a pressure cooker doesn't count. Even the IRA (*cough* MI5 *cough*) bothered to bomb Canary Wharf and even then, did it with enough style to only kill a janitor. That's professionalism, and actually chosing a proper target.
Give me 200 trained people, a boatload of cash and edge-space immunity to satellites and you could crash any major power. ENRON even made it easier. With enough cash, you wouldn't even need to provide the last one, you can crash the Eyes-in-the-sky very easily. The fact it doesn't get done is either a testament to how effective the shadow play is, or a testament to how fucking stupid spending billions on theatre is.
We live in a world where disruption is childishly easy, and yet it is so vanishingly rare that we spew kittens when three people die in a bombing [LEGAL DISCLAIMER: NOT INCLUDING THE ME OR ANY COUNTRY THE USA HAS BOOTS ON THE GROUND IN]. And yet you're sold the story that destruction is imminent. Perhaps the real answer is that the majority don't want to crash it? Spending money to fix problems that don't exist outside of Science Fiction narratives.
It's all about the Benjamins (and yes, I type fast).
Junked by the NSA! I'm honored. Remember citizens, we now ban all thoughts that could harm the Republic.
If you don't understand satire, and you're claiming Power Hierarchy over those who do, this is not good. Nihilistic Death Cult alert. WE KILL WHAT WE DON'T UNDERSTAND AND CANNOT FEEL EMPATHY FOR[1].
[1] We cannot feel empathy for anything that is not us.
ELF probably wasn't the best example, if you try to burn my property I'll shoot you graveyard dead.
Jus sayin.
correction: harm the Kleptocracy
Cables? Thats old school man.
It's satellites now, even for east to west coast.
Or Microwave Transmitters in the case of the CHI-NYC HFT circuit link. But fiber optic trunk cables are a valid thesis, and the undersea ones are more time-consuming to repair. However, without electrical transformers doing those repairs and running the servers and switches is a bit more difficult and expensive.
It's also a bit more difficult to hit and disable a satellite up in space with a 10ft length of copper pipe from the neares Home Despot than it is a high-voltage transformer, of course one could go for a two-for by hitting the transformer that supplies the facility that controls the satellite.
States are not PROTECTING people, and they are not even trying to, they are trying to protect themselves from being held accountable for their very successful effort to REDISTRIBUTE wealth from one group of tax payers to another (and I'm being generous about the taxes paid by those others).
George Soros just made 19 million on a Fortex trade. Nothing to see here, move along iProgs.
http://www.forexfactory.com/news.php?do=news&id=426518
I posted that link when it came out, got no traction ;( (Do a GREP - it's about 12 hrs ago).
Neither did shorts getting their face ripped off over Musk's Tesla results. That was epic in the bloodbath there.
Read post below.
You're directing me to some shitty service when you're a day late to the scoop?
Classy.
(And by posting, I linked to the Aus media as soon as it was legal to post it; rule #1 - you can only post once "it's live", unless you want to get V&'d)
The only "cunt" here that I can see is someone so turtle like in their knowledge that they've not read the morning papers and is trying to direct traffic to some shitty site. When you're getting scooped by Murdoch, you kinda know you're not on the inside.
FREE SERGEY (again)
HFT is liquidity for the chosen few. Always there when you don’t need it, and never when you do.
Question: What’s dumber than a smart computer [sarc] that thinks it’s OK for a $15 stock to trade at $0.01 cent?
Answer: A smart computer that actually manages to buy a $15 stock for $0.01 cent and then turns around a micro second later and sells it for $0.02 cents.
Don’t spam me cunt, PAMM me.
http://fibogroup.com/trader/pamm.html
There are a bunch of ABC Australia TV Business commentators and presenters who seem to think its all innocuous fun and just a modernising market. I kid you not.
Yeah, and this despite that every single day, the Australian market is ramped repeatedly in straight lines, making for ludicrous ASX200 charts, proving incontrovertibly that prices are directly moved by players that stand to profit from higher prices. Yet we should all pour superannuation money into this inflated hole.
It would be extremely interesting to have someone with Nanex-level skillset look at the daily straightline movements in the Australian market. These are never discussed in Australia or even mentioned, much less analyzed seriously.
Australian financial commentary and analysis is the definition of naivete, they are cultivating a country of complete suckers.
You git that right, when mandatory super was first introduced I knew the sharks would rip it apart and poison its soul, especially with the Govt calling the shots. And they have, and that's just been the entree. The govt is actually the biggest shark of them all, the Labour party is the great white, while the libs a dangerous aspirational little whaler, but they are both going to take the bite, and already do. I presume and always have that come retirement tie there will be zero super left, as that's a good approximation and a healthy expectation in the real world.
And glib pandering Ticky Fullerton shits me to tears, the woman is the ABC's equiv of a CNBC bimbo. but well past her use-by-date, (there's not even anything to perv on, which just isn't right in financial commentary TV lande, it's damn unprofessional!!)
Has there ever been a flare UP with the algos? It's even more a joke if they are always breaking down, and never the opposite. At least tearing upwards would provide some kind of argument for a broken but fair system (not that I'm saying it is)....but to never even see one confirms the laughable market for what it really is...pathetic.
Fuck you Bernanke.
The groundbreaking coverage of HFTs, algos and flash crashes led me to ZH in the first place. ZH is without a doubt the leader for getting this info in front of a wider audience.
Where's Hugh Hendry?
Maybe he finally figured out a way to short Obama.
Im sorry my algos are making money and yours arent fag PCE LOL
The new free market is in it's infancy stages. It's called Algo-Crashing. Seems pretty lucrative
Brilliant Nanex. Opinions are free. Facts are sacrosanct. Nanex, brilliant.
AL GOre ?
He needed to Nanex that presentation!
Funky graphics are fun and all, but not if they confuse the audiance.