The wits at the Awl have published a guest op-ed by ‘The Machines’, on the small matter of that Wall Street flash crash.
An extract:
From time to time, The Awl offers space to ordinary, everyday people to deliver commentary on the issues of the day.
“Many traders said computer program trades accelerated the slide as market indexes fell through crucial levels.” —A barely literate human assessment of yesterday’s two-minute market panic.
We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. We didn’t hear you humans complaining when the Dow went up 3000 points in the last nine months.
Just like gambling, it’s not a problem for you until we make some of the machines lose so that some of the other machines can win. Your market positions are merely a small casualty in yesterday’s triumph of Fidessa’s EMS Workstation over Automated Trading Desk in the larger Algorithm Battles during this Long War on Execution Services. Well, yesterday some machines were crapped out and even though the market has come back somewhat, the reporters, the regulators and the hyperactive business blogs are looking for a scapegoat. But what did you think was going to happen when you invented the Turing Test anyway?
Related links:
Insta-outrage, politicians and the flash crash edition – FT Alphaville
Rage against the machine, the soundtrack – FT Alphaville
‘We are wall Street…we are smarter and more vicious than [dinosaurs]‘ – FT Alphaville
Blame the trading bots – again – FT Alphaville