The Dark (Pool) Truth About What Really Goes On In The Stock Market
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
06/30/2012
Courtesy of the author, we present to our readers the following excerpt from Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, AI Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System, by Scott Patterson, author of The Quants.
In early December 2009, Haim Bodek finally solved the riddle of the stock-trading problem that was killing Trading Machines, the high-frequency firm he’d help launch in 2007. The former Goldman Sachs and UBS trader was attending a party in New York City sponsored by a computer-driven trading venue. He’d been complaining for months to the venue about all the bad trades—the runaway prices, the fees—that were bleeding his firm dry. But he’d gotten little help.
At the bar, he cornered a representative of the firm and pushed for answers. The rep asked Bodek what order types he’d been using to buy and sell stocks. Bodek told him Trading Machines used limit orders.
The rep smirked and took a sip of his drink. “You can’t use those,” he told Bodek.
“Why not?”
“You have to use other orders. Those limit orders are going to get run over.”
“But that’s what everyone uses,” Bodek said, incredulous. “That’s what Schwab uses.”
“I know. You shouldn’t.”
As the rep started to explain undocumented features about how limit orders were treated inside the venue’s matching engine, Bodek started to scribble an order on a napkin, detailing how it worked. “You’re fucked in that case?” he said, shoving the napkin at the guy.
“Yeah.”
He scribbled another. “You’re fucked in that case?” “Yeah.”
“Are you telling me you’re fucked in every case?” “Yeah.”
The Rest…HERE
