Reddit reviews Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
We found 13 Reddit comments about Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Flash Boys A Wall Street Revolt
Reminds me of the book Flash Boys when stock brokers noticed that as soon as they clicked "buy" on some stocks, the prices instantly increased.
There's a good book by Michael Lewis, called Flash Boys that talks about how the whole system is set up.
You might want to read this first.
I recommend Flash Boys to anyone that wants a bit more of a description of HFT. It's a pretty quick, insightful read.
I see that Intelligent Investor by Graham has already been posted but that's certainly a good one. However it can be a bit dry for most readers and if you would prefer something a bit fresher I would read Deep Value by Toby Carlisle. He discusses and critiques Graham's teachings along with the strategies of other notable value investors such as Buffet, Icahn, Greenblatt and many others all in a more modern tone. It's been the bible for my own value investing strategies.
Other books to look into are:
You should read Flash Boys by Micheal Lewis!
Read this & this. It shows perspective from both sides of the aisle.
> A limit order is an order to buy (or sell) at a specified price or better. A buy limit order (a limit order to buy) can only be executed at the specified limit price or lower. Conversely, a sell limit order (a limit order to sell) will be executed at the specified limit price or higher.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/intro-to-order-types/limit-orders.asp
 
We can start with a very simple answer to your question. It first depends on how much stock Albert is willing to buy and how much stock Steve is willing to sell.
 
Bids
10.52 200
10.53 500
 
If Steve puts in a sell order at 10.52 for 500 shares or fewer, he will be filled at 10.53. If Steve puts in a sell order for 600-700 shares, he will be filled at 10.53 for 500 shares and 10.52 for 200 shares.
The more complicated answer to your question depends on which exchange you route your order to and on which exchange the bids and offers exist. There's not just one "stock exchange" or two - Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange - but rather many places where bids and offers exist in the market.
 
Bids
10.52 200 ARCA
10.53 200 ARCA
10.53 100 BATS
10.53 300 EDGA
 
If Steve sends an order to sell 300 shares at 10.53 on EDGA, he will get filled on 300 shares from EDGA. If he sends an order to sell 500 shares on EDGA, he will get filled on 300 shares from EDGA and possibly be able to get the other 200 shares at 10.53. The reason this is so complicated is that high frequency traders are able to get to the other exchanges quicker than Steve's order is able to get from EDGA to ARCA and BATS to get the other stock. So we can only be sure that Steve's order will be filled in the size listed on the exchange to where he sends the order. This concept is explained in Flash Boys.
 
In essence, your questions are a bit too simplified because orders are placed with respect to a size, price, exchange, and a host of other properties. Some orders are even hidden!
 
TL;DR Steve's order will fill first at 10.53 for whatever stock he can get and then finish at 10.52 if there is enough stock there to finish the size on his order. Albert's order will fill in the converse. Buy limit allow you to purchase a stock at that price or lower. Sell limit orders allow you to sell stock at that price or higher.
If you want to know what's really happening read this, you'll be pissed by the end. https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Wall-Street-Revolt/dp/0393351599
​
​
There are always drawbacks to any investment. If you know how to properly evaluate individual securities (and perhaps have access to an algo or two highlighting the proper buy and sell signals) then there are a whole range of additional options available. Yes, REIT ETFs tend not to be correlated with stocks in general but during extreme events, many different types of investments will fall in unison. Remember though, correlation does not equal causation. If your time horizon is long and your main objective with holding REIT ETFs is to have some "rental income" that doesn't get taxed as rental income and be diversified owning a fraction of a portion of thousands of different properties; then they are great. Massive market downturns are perfect times to buy more REIT ETFs and increase your average monthly dividend as a result; just keep DCA and market dips (especially flash crashes like the 2010 one or the August one) are silly little things that you simply ignore. Not much the average investor can do about those anyway unless you're running your own HFT firm and have a server in the basement of the NYSE or TSX. I might be a tad naive but since there's no way that I can ever beat an HFT at individual trades (don't know how quickly you're able to fill your orders but I don't operate in nanoseconds on my end) I figured that I might as well ignore them. Just avoid market orders (stick to basic limit orders) and if you're really paranoid you can limit your trades to specific exchanges thus avoiding most darkpools. But we're talking about "scalping" fraction of pennies per share or even per trade here. Not really something the average person, especially not the long-term investor will ever really worry about. And unless you have millions of dollars, you're likely uninteresting to HFT algos anyway. Anyway, as you said... off topic from the original stuff but wanted to point out that I'm aware that I'm over-simplifying many of my statements (but in reality, most people don't need to know about the plumbing how their trades are executed and how flash crashes can occur etc in order to invest for the long-term). So despite finding the topic very interesting, I tend to stay away from it. For those wondering what on Earth u/FFrozen1 and I are speaking about, have a look at this data from Nanex looking at how many quotes are created sent out by HFTs vs. how many actually get filled. Also, there are a few great books on the subject: Dark pools and Flash Boys to name but two. These are slightly more advanced than "The Wealthy Barber Returns" for example but they make for a good read for anyone interested in learning more about how the market operates.
If only I would have been aware that Behavioural Finance existed as a field before starting my studies, I would have most likely pursued that instead. At least I'm in a related field so I can always do some research in that area. Time will tell... As for leverage and ETF effects on volatility (those are future post ideas so stay tuned :)
Thanks for the extra suggestions!
Dude, read [this one] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393338827?keywords=the%20big%20short&qid=1450542815&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1) and [this one.] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393351599?keywords=the%20big%20short&qid=1450542815&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3) [The first one they already made a movie.] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/?ref_=nv_sr_1) The second one I'm only starting but people say it's brilliant.
Edit: forgot to say that I really liked the first one, The Big Short.
I assume you mean this? Flash Boys
https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Wall-Street-Revolt/dp/0393351599
In this book it talks about how in the early 2000s fiber cable was the fastest thing and most expensive thing anyone could possibly get so that's what the stock market used but today they don't use Fiber anymore. They use various types of microwave Wireless way faster than fiber, why? Light bouncing around inside of a cable travels a much further distance in a straight line than light transmitted between two points with line of sight.