Last year, courtesy of Michael Lewis, the entire world was alerted to what we have known for more than five years: the market is rigged. For those willing to pay attention to such things, reminders (sometimes subtle, sometimes not-so-subtle) are everywhere that our financial “markets” are no longer “markets” at all, rather, they are casinos where the house always, always wins and where the ill effects of pervasive algo battles are exacerbated by the enslavement of government bond markets by DM central banks. For those who haven’t seen what we have dubbed “the most laughed at chart in all of finance,” behold the graphical representation of “the house always wins” from Virtu’s S-1:
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While we bemoan the loss of our beloved markets to the machines, and while we watch helplessly as the algos, vacuum tubes, and Terminator T-800s “roil [6]” the E-Mini and panic-buy TSLA on April Fool’s day [7], we got a glimmer of hope earlier this week when China’s day trading housewives scored a rare victory [8] in the war against the machines as the sheer number of new Chinese traders overwhelmed the software that tracks volume on the Shanghai exchange. Today we discovered that, for the first time since Skynet commandeered both the market and the US regulatory regime, humans have taken back the momentum, winning a second victory over the machines in the space of 48 hours.
Here’s more via the Colorado Springs Gazette [9]:
When ctrl + alt + delete doesn't work, just shoot the darn thing.
That's what one man did on Monday night, according to Colorado Springs police. Lucas Hinch, 37, was cited for discharging a weapon within city limits after he took the fight with his computer outside and got the revenge most of us only dream about.
"He got tired of fighting with his computer for the last several months," Lt. Jeff Strossner said. "He was having technology problems, so he took it out in the back alley and shot it."
Strossner tweeted Hinch "executed" his computer in an alley on the 2200 block of West Colorado Avenue.
The penalty for the citation will be up to a judge, police said, adding that Hinch was good-natured about the citation and hadn't realized he was breaking the law when he went Wild West on that useless piece of technology.
Hinch shot it eight times, Strossner said, "effectively disabling it."
The computer is not expected to recover.
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It has begun...
