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"America's Equity Markets Are Broken" Yale CIO Admits "Rigged Markets" Hurt Individuals

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Authored by David Swensen (Yale CIO) and Jonathan Macey, Op-Ed via NYTimes.com,

America's equity markets are broken. Individuals and institutions make transactions in rigged markets favoring short-term players. The root cause of the problem is that stocks trade on numerous venues, including 11 traditional exchanges and dozens of so-called dark pools that allow buyers and sellers to work out of the public eye. This market fragmentation allows high-frequency traders and exchanges to profit at the expense of long-term investors.

Individual investors, trading through brokers like Charles Schwab, E-Trade and TD Ameritrade, suffer first as the brokers profit by hundreds of millions of dollars from selling their retail orders to high-frequency traders and again as those traders take advantage of the orders they bought.

Market depth, critically important to investors who trade large blocks of securities, also suffers in the world of high-frequency traders. Startling evidence for the lack of robustness in today’s market comes from a 2013 Securities and Exchange Commission report that found order cancellation rates as high as 95 to 97 percent, a result of high-frequency traders’ playing their cat and mouse game. Market depth is an illusion that fades in the face of real buying and selling.

Securities markets work best as a central clearinghouse where all buyers and sellers of stocks come together. Not so long ago, when the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq operated as virtual monopolies, American equity markets were the envy of the world. Until 2000, Nasdaq was wholly owned by a nonprofit corporation; the New York Stock Exchange was nonprofit until 2006. To ensure that they would operate in the public interest, they were treated much like public utilities.

The unfairness of trading markets became a subject of intense focus with the publication in 2014 of Michael Lewis’s book “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,” which describes the way these markets are rigged in favor of high-frequency traders. Fortunately, Mr. Lewis provides a hopeful ending, predicting that the book’s hero, a trader named Brad Katsuyama, would save the day by forming his own exchange to serve real investors.

Mr. Lewis was right. Mr. Katsuyama’s company, IEX (in which Yale has a small indirect investment), has filed an application to become a national securities exchange. Exchanges are the key to price discovery — the determination of the true price of an asset — because the National Market System requires brokers to route trades to the exchange displaying the best price. Right now, brokers and their larger exchange competitors can ignore IEX and other regulated alternative trading platforms, even if they display the best prices.

Its exchange competitors, which include the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and BATS, cater to the interests of high-frequency traders, which typically provide more than 50 percent of all trading volume. In addition to trading fees, exchanges charge fees for high-speed proprietary data feeds that provide privileged access to market data.

Exchanges advance the interests of traders by sponsoring esoteric order types, which for hard-to-understand reasons receive the approval of the S.E.C. An example is the New York Stock Exchange Day Intermarket Sweep Add Liquidity Only Order. Regular investors have no idea such an order type exists or what it means. Yet order types like these are essential to the dirty work of the high-frequency trader.

High-frequency traders pay to locate their computer servers inside of exchanges’ order execution centers, where they get early access to trade information that they use to jump in front of — front run — other clients. These co-located computers detect orders to buy and sell on one exchange and then rapidly send cancellations and orders to other venues where their servers are also co-located. Does this sound like a fair system?

IEX’s plan is to forgo the high profits earned by the major exchanges from selling speed advantages on the theory that they can make money more ethically by attracting long-term investors.

Its strategy is simple. IEX will not allow traders to reap the benefits of speed, instead slowing down all participants by 350 microseconds. This prevents the front-running facilitated by exchanges, which has led to vigorous and vitriolic opposition from groups that profit from the current arrangement.

An unholy alliance of exchanges (including the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and BATS) and high-frequency traders like Citadel have petitioned the S.E.C. to reject IEX’s current application. In essence, the petitioners argue that it is consistent with commission rules for an exchange to sell certain customers an advantage over others, but IEX should not be allowed to remove these advantages.

The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and BATS seek to block IEX from competing, when they collectively own 10 of the 11 national stock exchanges. By creating (and receiving S.E.C. approval for) so many exchanges, the current infrastructure fragments the market without providing the benefits of real competition.

Maybe IEX’s business model will work and maybe it won’t, but the S.E.C. should act in the public interest. Approval of IEX’s application will not fix America’s equity markets; it will make them less broken. The commission should not succumb to the special interests of competitors and their fellow travelers. It should approve IEX’s application and provide a real alternative for long-term investors.

 

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Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:07 | 6963216 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Admitting you have a problem IS the first step. Now let's see if anyone walks the talk.

<Of course, in this case, the one admitting there is a problem has no ability to fix the problem. Those who do have the power to fix are being paid to ignore it or are profiting from it. That's called corruption in case anyone didn't understand.>

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:17 | 6963241 prefan4200
prefan4200's picture

Unnecessarily long title.... America is broken.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:24 | 6963265 knukles
knukles's picture

Well thank god that the high yield, municipal, foreign exchange, swap, gold and oil markets, let alone petro-dollars are not rigged or even influenced by "other mysterious" non-fundamental factors.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:23 | 6963260 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

It is indeed. Though worryingly, more often, confessions only come when there are no other choices to scheme and bluster a way out of the problem.

I notice with interest that with each "Truthiness" admitted from the insiders, the can kicking fiesta of delusion may be coming slowly to an end in the economy. But then I say this every year. :)

I'm having a merry-ish Christmas and wishing everyone, whoever you are, the warm smiles, compassion and contentment that emanate from true peace and love in one's heart.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:38 | 6963373 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

Merry Christmas

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:51 | 6963397 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

Davey! Merry Christmas mate. I'm full of turkey, beef, sausages, booze and pudding. Quite unable to do anything else but nod inanely and read ZH. Hope you're having a marvellous time surrounded by your loved ones.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:50 | 6963322 Perimetr
Perimetr's picture

Rigged is NOT "Broken", it is totally CORRUPT.

It is the Fascist Business Model at work in the National Security State (thanks to Jim Willie for the correct title).

Sat, 12/26/2015 - 13:01 | 6963370 Dr. Spin
Dr. Spin's picture

Corruption and Cultural Inbreeding always ALWAYS presages a collapse.

History will not be kind to these panderers to greed and self-service.  You know who you are.  We know who you are.

'nuff said,

Spoctor Din

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:04 | 6963218 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture

They are? Who broke 'em?

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:12 | 6963231 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

"To ensure that they would operate in the public interest, they were treated much like public utilities."

Markets and banks are both public utilities. They are supposed to be a mechanism within which capitalism can take place. Instead, the two have been deregulated so that what were once simple utilites have become the biggest PLAYERS themselves. They are not supposed to be playing, they are supposed to be the field on which capitalism is played out. You can't let the field begin to play the game. Too late now. Corrupted markets skim off of the real economy and banks are the biggest market players, with insured deposits. It is all wrong, and the collapse will come and prove that. Right now the Central Banks of the world are successfully preventing a total collapse of corrupt markets and fraud driven banking. The bribed politicians let this happen, Reagan picked up the deregulation ball, and Clinton carried it over the goal line. Since then, Presidents have been engaged in protecting the corrupt markets and fraud bankers.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:51 | 6963374 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

As usual, very well said Jack 

It's good to see lots of old voices out for the holiday

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 16:12 | 6963415 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

Here, here. Great to see "Prosecutie" again as your avatar too. I know several friends who still drone on about "Price discovery" in the markets whenever there's the tiniest dip, nodding sagely as though this is the real market. Even clever people have selective amnesia when it concerns their daily bread and mortgage payments. I've doubted that the status quo could carry on for much longer for years and been proved wrong, the resilience of this delusion so strong. But with these insiders running out of rationalizations, it cannot be far? :). Wish you all the best mate.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 22:56 | 6964169 JRobby
JRobby's picture

Well said. Merry Christmas. It started in 1980 and by 1997 the take over of the markets and destruction of the middle class was completed. Such bold actions require a police state and fully captured political system to perpetuate. 9/11 gave them that and more.

Starve the beast for New Year's. We will prevail.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:22 | 6963254 get nothing and...
get nothing and like it's picture

Of course the (PPT)  Citatdel would petition the SEC (Wall Street Crony) to reject IEX, how would they be able to levitate markets?

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 23:01 | 6964178 JRobby
JRobby's picture

SEC? (Laugh Track Deafening) 

 

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:24 | 6963264 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

The markets are not broken. In fact they are working extremely well for those that can literally have 365 straight days of profitable trades.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:59 | 6963405 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

I admire the ability to trade positive at the close of every single market day! Man that is some smart trading!

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:24 | 6963266 Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights's picture

Federal Reserve will pay banks $12 billion in 2016

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/federal-reserve-will-pay-banks--12-billion...

What a scam, wake up Congress!!

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:53 | 6963295 PacOps
PacOps's picture

"What a scam, wake up Congress!!"

 

They are and have been very awake. 

Investment banking contributions

http://maplight.org/us-congress/interest/F2300/view/all

Contributions shown for the last six years of available data, Apr 1, 2009 - Mar 31, 2015, including contributions to presidential campaigns.

 

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:49 | 6963392 dogbert8
dogbert8's picture

Feckless, self-serving career politicians cannot resist the allure of campaign contributions from their crony buddies who slip money into the greasy pockets of the politicians they are buying.  It's useless to try to get Congress' attention; they know exactly what is going on and they either openly endorse it or tacitly permit it to continue.  Not until we vote every career politician out of office and start from scratch, as often as it takes, will we ever be able to take back control of our lives and our country.  Voters have the power to do this; they just don't know it.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:31 | 6963269 PrimalScream
PrimalScream's picture

The root cause of the problem is not 'market fragmentation' per se.  Yes, there may be multiple exchanges and special pools of stocks.  But the prices between all markets would adjust properly and extremely quickly through arbitrage - IF ALL PRICES WERE OPEN AND TRADING FREELY.

The root cause of the problem is that the exchanges and markets provide access to data (for trading) for 'preferred customers' ... in a way that the public does not have.  If you can see the market action ahead of all the other players ... you have an advantage.

In the old days, this used to be a problem at poker halls.  It was referred to as ... "spying on the other man's cards".  Or more commonly ...  "cheating".  And people got shot for doing it.

I said it before. There is an OPEN OPPORTUNITY for a young lawyer with fierce ambition to sue these exchanges with a class action lawsuit.  The amount of money at stake is huge.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:49 | 6963317 DOGGONE
DOGGONE's picture

Class action?!

Stocks and homes are assets priced in U.S. dollars. Therefore, their
soundly shown price histories are inflation-adjusted ("real").

But such are seldom seen, because: Well apparent therein are our
nation's serial, massive mispricings. I do this
http://showrealhist.com/yTRIAL.html
in order to combat deception by omission done to our citizenry.

"The public be suckered" is both this history and keeping it UNSEEN.

Federal felonies include fraud, which includes false advertising, which includes deception by omission.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:26 | 6963271 DOGGONE
DOGGONE's picture

For example, why is this very instructive history nearly never seen?
http://showrealhist.com/begun.gif
http://showrealhist.com

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:42 | 6963288 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Perfect markets don't exist.

Perfect money and self regulatory systems are chimera.

Regulation and human intervention is always necessary. But they should be in terms of transparent, accountable, humanistic value systems.

Saying : Supply side "ingenuity", based on "trickle down" is our profit maximising "way of life" is now taking the road to killing the social construct of any nation and now of any planet.

Its the derivatives casino and may the devil take the hindmost clown who asks for "trickledown". Some mantra Mr Reagan and consorts!

The worst of worlds is a mad puritan Oligarch who thinks he does God's purpose married to a venal corrupt politician who just wants to stay in power whatever the cost.

The Saud petromonarchy-US political deep state alliance is the perfect example of that world ruinous combine.

 

Sat, 12/26/2015 - 09:13 | 6964791 Lady Jessica
Lady Jessica's picture

The worst of worlds is a mad puritan Oligarch who thinks he does God's purpose married to a venal corrupt politician who just wants to stay in power whatever the cost.

falak pema at his best.

Merry Christmas!

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 14:45 | 6963296 lester1
lester1's picture

Anyone else notice the Federal Reserve's balance sheet ticked back up by about $20 billion dollars last month? The Fed calls it "mortgage backed security purchases" but who the hell really knows?

Who got the money and for what purpose?..

I suspect the Fed bought more bad assets from their primary dealers like Goldman Sachs, and gave them orders to buy stocks with the freed up capital. What is to stop the Fed from doing this? They are unaudited.

Don't kid yourself, the Federal Reserve is run by Democrats, and don't want a stock market crash with Obama in office despite the bad economic data. It would ruin his "recovery" legacy and hurt Hillary's chances in 2016.

The Fed is not independent. Not in the slightest! They have rigged this stock market big time to help the .1% and Obama. Why else is Janet Yellen terrified of an audit by Congress?

I predict the economy will be in recession in 2016, yet stocks will still go higher. Then we will know for a fact the Federal Reserve has a stock buying program.

Audit the Fed immediately !

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:22 | 6963357 DOGGONE
DOGGONE's picture

Might there be space for a fall?
http://showrealhist.com
HoHoHo

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:23 | 6963358 bugs_
bugs_'s picture

Puerto Rico

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:03 | 6963336 seek
seek's picture

"... slowing down all participants by 350 microseconds"

That.s 0.00035 seconds. 0.3 milliseconds. "Slowing down."

And yes, that will totally fucked with HFT, but the story opens with a discussion about single investors using Schwab and E-Trade, and that this will level the playing field. I hope you're really fucking fast on those mouse clicks, boys.

If they really wanted to fix this problem, there'd be a minimum hold time -- measured in minutes or hours -- on a position and all trades would be batched on the same schedule.

We've never going to have fair and equitable markets again outside of post-apocalyptic bartertowns.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:06 | 6963338 Fuku Ben
Fuku Ben's picture

A company with moral or ethical values? They'll never allow it.

Rigged markets don't hurt individuals they hurt everyone except the cockroaches that use inside information and steal from everyone else.

I'd love to lay out the details for everyone. But that would also likely hurt just about everyone. So in the mean time I will just call out the criminals and the various layers of the global scam every day.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:11 | 6963342 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Been broken since 1913, a year before WWI.  It's been war ever since.

Sat, 12/26/2015 - 14:19 | 6965393 mccvilb
mccvilb's picture

The markets function perfectly and always have. For a hardcore few it has been a revelation a long time coming as we cycled thru technical analysis, fundamentals, charting, fibs and candlesticks, options and the five Greeks only to learn we weren't as smart as we thought. The majority today refuse to think about it at all because they don't understand the markets and they trade on the news, trusting on their instincts and brand name sources. I was amazed to learn directly from both a Merrill Lynch broker and a GSCO financial consultant that they didn't have a clue either. They got their marching orders from the order desk and never looked past what they were told to push.

It's a system mainly based on how we are wired. When events trigger emotional responses our logic circuitry shuts down, thinking goes out the window and paranoia builds exponentially. Lewis only glossed over the boilerplate in his dissertation on HFT but what he uncovered was merely a faster iteration of what had always existed before HFT. The biggest difference was the introduction of 3rd party frontrunning. Taking the opposite sides of recommended trades had been the house's bread and butter for decades. I was surprised the brokers allowed 3rd parties entrance.

It's just too incredulous to think government agencies created for market regulation were in actuality put there to shield the house and limit and restrict the movements of "ïnvestors" ie the sheep while they were being sheared. Most will never grasp this. The game has always been rigged. Don't think so? Write a letter to the SEC or the WSJ and let me know how it turns out. The one precept the entire system has depended upon to keep the herd coming back are the emotional stages involved in buying and bailing and crosslinked in our minds from the appealing heroic risk/reward pumps to the full panic defcon 5 dumps.   Each business day the Pavlovian bell signals dinner is now served, but the chefs are the only ones who know which companies or sectors are on the blue plate special for the day. However we all know who's really on the menu.

 

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:21 | 6963355 bugs_
bugs_'s picture

Good morning Rip van Winkle!

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:23 | 6963360 Born2Bwired
Born2Bwired's picture

This might be the best Christmas gift to traders for 2016 if it goes anywhere. People that control real money speaking out against the corruption!

 

Merry Christmas to ZH readers, great contributors and commentators. 

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 16:06 | 6963410 Caleb Abell
Caleb Abell's picture

"This might be the best Christmas gift to traders for 2016 if it goes anywhere. People that control real money speaking out against the corruption!"

 

Which is exactly why it will be stopped.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 15:50 | 6963394 Duc888
Duc888's picture

 

 

"Rigged Markets" Hurt Individuals"

 

....another fucking genius from Yale.  We'd be lost without these smart people.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 16:22 | 6963423 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

The other issue is that stop loss orders from little guys sit as 'red capes' to the algorithm Bulls. They do not protect the little guys any more, because the algorithms see them, move the market violently up or down to grab those orders, then swing the market back and collect profits.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 18:08 | 6963595 Dr_Lucid
Dr_Lucid's picture

Hey I just wanted to reply to you but as I mentioned earlier based on being inside a lot of the meetings that take place in and outside of Boston that the guys who are getting into this often make a few mistakes upfront. 

For example, try this.  Set a limit to sell 1 sigma above the ask but do so with size.  Because of the way the small dicked mother obsessed Yale design their code, they can often catch a spike to the bottom AND a spike to the top. 

Its hilarious to see this but you bascially exploit the ignorance of a new trader (conerted to Algo stuffing chalk boy) and get your fill above the ask.  Its awesome to see this because you get to unload your position at an artifically inflated price and the algo guy never sees it since you are just a needle in a haystack.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 18:03 | 6963581 Dr_Lucid
Dr_Lucid's picture

I've actually done quite well spoofing HFT's this year.

First off I live near Boston, so I attend most of the algo / HFT trade group meetings and converse often with these traders.  End of day its a robot you are competing with so you'll never be smarter, but you can think outside the box and use their rules against them.

For example. When entering a trade on a mid-cap, realize that your market order through TOS will be like a splash in the water.  HFT's immediately expand their circle jerk algo's to "accomodate" for potential retail flow. This in turn drastically reduces the bid and raises the ask on both sides. The spread widens because these little gerbil smuggling thick eyebrow Yale boys want to first explore the spread before they enter a trade (which is why they never get laid).

Now here is how you play this.  Before you enter your market order through TOS, enter a limit to buy IN ANOTHER ACCOUNT at or near the lower Bollinger.  But do this for 75% of the order you really want.  This way your small stupid order on TOS gets filled, and then the HFT's drop the bid, and then they smash into your limit on another system. 

This only works when momentum is positive ( or TSI just crossed from negative to positive).  Seriously....make a market order on some stupid retail account and watch the HFT's scurry.  <500,000 daily volume. 

Also...I hate to say this but I think TD Ameritrade "grades" your account.  So for example, I've made 336 trades this year and have had maybe 3-5 trades that were profitable.  But that is by design.  I'm trading wtih this Ameritrade account as my lead and then over on Fidelity and IB ( for some reason Fidelity does better against HFT's) is where I trade the bulk of my position.  I think they have some pools of their own as my price improvement over there has been nothing short of amazing).  So what TDA is "selling" as "hey this is the worst retail trader on the planet" is acutally by design and then I exploit my own order on another sytem.

Sat, 12/26/2015 - 02:38 | 6964560 DipshitMiddleCl...
DipshitMiddleClassWhiteKid's picture

a few years back a few guys from germany or the netherlands were doing this shit (spoofing HFT guys) and the regulators went after them and they had to pay a fine i think.

 

what you're saying is exactly what i do with forex (using oanda) ..ill put a limit order in around a major price level on a 4H or 1D chart and watch it get bid up than it retraces. sometimes the price burts through the level and i can make a quick 25-50 pip rip, other times it hits it than retraces but im super aggressive with cutting losers so it works out pretty good. most of my trades are losers too but i still manage to make $$

 

merry xmas!!

 

 

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 18:28 | 6963628 breadonwaters
breadonwaters's picture

What i find interesting is the blogosphere  has allowed a significant part of the sheeple (.5 -1.5%) to be AWARE of what is going on....and share this understanding amonst ourselves. My guess is that this has never happened in world history.....yes, there has always been criminals and self serving oligarchs ...but they were operating in a dark room that only historians could decipher years after their gaming was completed.  (perhaps the french revolution was an outlier).

No, i have no great eye-opener as to how this may change the final crash, other than, perhaps like the french revolution, the oligarchs will not be able to crawl away like the cockroaches they are, when the lights come on.  It may be a modern equivalent of the Guillotine (sp?)..

...and blood will run in the streets.  There, thats a pleasant thought!

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 19:10 | 6963689 Chippewa Partners
Chippewa Partners's picture

Institutions should demand trades be routed to the IEX. Great first step!

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 21:25 | 6963929 gregga777
gregga777's picture

The entire banking and financial system, from the Federal Reserve System to stock and bond markets, are rigged to enrich the Wall Street, Banking, Crony Corporatists and obscenely rich Oligarch criminals by stealing from Main Street America. The entire political class are bribed to look the other way.

Fri, 12/25/2015 - 23:06 | 6964192 kwatinhu
kwatinhu's picture

It seems to me as small time as  individual investors are maybe, we do have some clout as all the brokerage houses are always courting us, no one uses the old time brokerage houses anymore but busy millionaires or rich widows who can't keep a checking account. The internet has changed everything, we don't need the brokers anymore except to use their license to make our trades.

We should demand the retail brokers use IEX or move to one who does.

Sounds like a marketing campaign waiting to happen to me. AND the Sec (groan) or someone with some kind of regulatory authority should come down on these HFT bastards hard. I agree, some enterprising young law firm should have their mouths watering over the class action suit this could bring.

Think big tobacco on steroids. That should scare the shit out of these bastards.

Sat, 12/26/2015 - 02:53 | 6964575 DipshitMiddleCl...
DipshitMiddleClassWhiteKid's picture

id say in the next few years we will see the US equity markets and derivatives become similar to what FX trading is. low spreads and more leverage to get the suckers in again

 

 

 

 

Sat, 12/26/2015 - 00:08 | 6964335 hedgiex
hedgiex's picture

Know the game where the Referee is also the Player and Exchanges sell tickets like theaters. This has no impact on real long term investors. As for the traders, this has already contributed to the collapse in price discovery; they who  by necessity have to stay in the game have long shifted to a new paradigm. 

In the long run, Captialism cannot exist without price discovery in trusted channels. You only have angst if you yearn to be in the Lost Paradise and be eaten alive where the law of the jungle prevails. (Amazing a guy from Yale still spinning Order).These HFTs are not yet market makers and don't bet that there are no traps for them when collectively the juices flow to their coffers. Where's the spirit to respond to these HFTs with "Come let's Play". 

Sat, 12/26/2015 - 12:59 | 6965194 TheDanimal
TheDanimal's picture

It isn't difficult to understand or explain why the SEC approves esoteric order types. I've got two words for ya, regulatory capture. It's the Interstate Commerce Commission all over again. History sure does rhyme. 

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