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Head Of "Holy Grail" HFT Firm Chief To Become President Of HFT-Beloved BATS Exchange

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Remember Virtu: the "holy grail" HFT firm that epically Plaxicoed itself when, as part of its IPO prospectus, it effectively confirmed it was rigging markets when it showed a chart boasting that it had 1 trading day loss out of a total of 1238 days...

... which promptly led to an expedited inquiry into HFT market rigging, and Michael Lewis' book exposing the HFT fraud for everyone, forcing Virtu executives to shelve their hopes to get even richer, and selling their equity to the common public?

Well, moments ago it was finally confirmed once and for all that Michael Lewis, and his assertion that the countless US exchanges only work on behalf of HFTs, by providing them glimpses of incoming blocks so the same vacuum tube parasites can frontrun major orders, was spot on, when the WSJ reported that Virtu's head, Chris Concannon, will be appointed as president of BATS Global, aka DirectEdge, aka the exchange whose own IPO was ironically sabotaged by a stray HFT algo, aka the exchange that lost its previous head Bill O'Brien after he was caught lying, in an unforgettable segment, on CNBC by IEX's Brad Katsuyama.

The result was O'Brien's prompt termination, and a leaderless BATS. Until now, when in a dramatic example of the unprecedented collusion between predatory (HFT) client and predator-enabling (and HFT-pandering) exchange, in which the prey is any naive, witless order block that makes its way onto the exchange only to be frontrun with impunity and assure Virtu even more flawless trading days, we once again see just who calls the shots for America's exchanges.

From the WSJ:

Virtu Financial LLC executive Chris Concannon will be appointed as president of BATS Global Trading Inc., an upstart Kansas City, Mo., firm that has grown into one of the country’s top stock-exchange operators, BATS said.

 

Mr. Concannon’s arrival coincides with the company “starting to set our sights on what to do next,” said Joe Ratterman , CEO of BATS, in an interview.

 

 “We came from nowhere nine years ago with 13 employees,” he said. “We’re now the largest exchange operator in Europe, first or second in the U.S. and completing a big acquisition… The company is scaling.”

Well of course, when the entire exchange is designed to benefit HFTs parasitism at the expense of retail and institutional order flow, how can it not grow?

Mr. Concannon, 47, has served as the president of Virtu, a high-frequency trading firm, since 2009. His appointment will be effective Dec. 15. He will fill a void left by William O’Brien, who was forced out of BATS in July amid cultural differences and a decision by BATS to settle allegations that one of its units gave improper advantages to high-speed traders. Those settlement talks, as reported previously by The Wall Street Journal, cover allegations related to Direct Edge Holdings LLC, the exchange operator Mr. O’Brien led before it merged with BATS last year.

 

* * * 

 

“I love this space and I love our markets,” Mr. Concannon said in an interview. “I’ll be very focused on growing the business.”

And vacuum tubes around the globe will be happy to give it to you Chris: after all where else can they frontrun everyone with such delightful ease, assuring them around 1 trading day loss in 4 years?

Remember: none of this fleecing of mom and pop and everyone else will matter, or anything else for that matter, as long as stocks keep rising. Once the crash happens, however, every story like this will be closely scrutinized in retrospect by a public which has "unexpectedly" lost trillions in paper wealth, and is finally eager to get some answers.

 

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Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:42 | 5410336 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

What difference does it make "at this point"?  LOL.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:43 | 5410340 chinaboy
chinaboy's picture

precursor of a total ailen/robots take over?

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:49 | 5410341 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

This is bad.

Neverending bad...

 

Another piece of data that has to lead to the inescapable conclusion that NYC and now USA finance is not a place for normal people.  

Get the fuck out.  Get all the way out into alternate systems: Gold, art, barter, international, anything but WS

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:55 | 5410364 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Yep.  More importantly, have your tribe at the ready.  Be sure your tax attorney has all your physical assets severely undevalued on the official books because all the local governments are going to be starved for revenue shortly.  These fuckerer, especially the feds will want to increase taxes aon any and all assets and remaining economic activity.

The advantage at the local level is you know these people, they are your neighbors and chances are, they want to live.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 13:43 | 5410392 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Interesting, presently live in city, in parts that the FSA live.  But have developed community and once you are local, the FSA treats you as local, nicely.  Not sure that would last when TSHTF.

I would love to get acreage and separation, but Mrs Race does not.  She is positive, I am negative.  Maybe I can convince her small high rise with also country escape space....?

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:45 | 5410343 Sutton
Sutton's picture

Can't wait for the next BATS IPO.
Got the popcorn and beer ready.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:47 | 5410347 Panic Mode
Panic Mode's picture

LOL, this cannot get better. Keep coming.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:47 | 5410349 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Moar corruption, moar lies.... same as it ever was. Remember to make a difference,  go vote..... vote for change...... LOL.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:12 | 5410351 SoilMyselfRotten
SoilMyselfRotten's picture

1 trading day loss in 4 years? How you gonna keep up with the competition at that rate? Clean up your act BATS.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:53 | 5410362 Coldcall
Coldcall's picture

"“I love this space and I love our markets,” Mr. Concannon said in an interview. “I’ll be very focused on growing the business.”

muahahahaha

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:24 | 5410454 percyklein
percyklein's picture

A little like an  interview with Willie Sutton inside a bank vault as he helps himself to whatever you entrusted to the bank, all the while, outside, the Keystone cops of the SEC are runnig around doing nothing.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:54 | 5410367 ABCStore
ABCStore's picture

Con artist at high frequency rate becomes ConCannon

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:54 | 5410368 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

if lewis is the hft's best friend then bullard is their second best friend

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:09 | 5410412 semperfi
semperfi's picture

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it." -- Frederic Bastiat (political economist, 1850)

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." -- Thomas Jefferson  

 

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:13 | 5410418 Calculus99
Calculus99's picture

Foxes, hens, henhouses, looking after, something like that.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 12:01 | 5410453 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Given this repetitive, factually fueled, financial crony baloney shenanigans that ZH is finger pointing to, time and again, how can anybody is his right mind call the WS financial Zillion dollar assets/bonds/derivatives/currency fest concoction anything but land of financialized Zombiestan. 

When the python swallows his tail to the extent is has today, when the markets are blind to fundamentals and batshit crazy about the slightest Oligarchy HFT wiggle, no wonder even a butterfly feels by flapping its purty Kardashian wings it could start a tsunami. 

The medium is the message and its Barzini's doing all along. 

Sorry for mixing my metaphors but Mad Men are now not just running Madison Ave. They also run 1600 PEnnsylvania, the Senate (all shook up this week in raging hate spates and "billion $ for grabs for the senate hooker who says she loves guns" campaign rampaging) that would make  the rumble in the jungle of planet of apes look like the Queen's garden party.

Democracy at its bestest! 

Markets at their zombiest! 

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:31 | 5410497 youngman
youngman's picture

Pretty soon instead of blaming the problems on the weather...they will be blaming it on the computers...and we will accept that as a good answer..that is how dumb we have become...we are allowing the crooks to run the cash register...and its all ok.....

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:42 | 5410550 The Man Thursday
The Man Thursday's picture

Tyler's conclusion is--unfortunately--correct: when the market rises, nobody cares much about how the game is being played.  When I make money, I don't like to ask too many questions about what's going on behind the curtain.  But, when the market falls, everybody is going to be looking around to see who took all the money and how they took it.  This will be a big story--then.

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 12:42 | 5410791 Seeking Aphids
Seeking Aphids's picture

Hey Tylers.....where is the scathing article about the lack of coverage by the mainstream US media of the JP Morgan Chase investigation? I thought you would be all over this story. Esp as the investigation is not only about currency markets but also commodities...........I had to go to the BBC to get coverage of this story.........

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 12:42 | 5410792 Seeking Aphids
Seeking Aphids's picture

Hey Tylers.....where is the scathing article about the lack of coverage by the mainstream US media of the JP Morgan Chase investigation? I thought you would be all over this story. Esp as the investigation is not only about currency markets but also commodities...........I had to go to the BBC to get coverage of this story.........

Tue, 11/04/2014 - 21:27 | 5412802 DipshitMiddleCl...
DipshitMiddleClassWhiteKid's picture

all 'markets' are a fucking scam

 

 

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