Interesting perspective: http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2282-Mr.-President-Unplug-the-Fing-Computers.html
(Hat tip: amisconception on mises)
The big thing is that gold is up big.
As you guys remember, gold fell in the previous financial crisis.
This signals a HUGE psychology shift. Maybe I’ll make a thread later on why.
Ron Paul’s facebook page is all over on this one. He knows it’s a big deal.
When gold goes up when busts happen - WATCH OUT - that’s the tipping out.
I called it yesterday (see post: Inflation rate combined with food and energy: 18.7% since March 2009):
Consumer good price inflation = oncoming recession.
Oil and commodities fell. Bond prices soared. It seems like the markets are anticipating deflation.
So… when is the next bailout going to be?
O Hell… O_o
I think I made some money today.
Details please.
I’m sure he is referring to gold
I own goooollllddd.
It was certainly a great day to be short 
Equities still have a long way to fall.
No one reserves the right to be guaranteed a profit. Let the market do what it wants. If companies are ok with being traded on markets that have computerized trading systems, so what?
Should we enact legislation that bars people from some certain form of action just because it meets the subjective preferences of some other people? Is there a moral right to control other people? Does there exist a moral right to be owed a profit just because you feel like you don’t like the game?
If buddy can’t take the heat, he should get out of the kitchen.
Two snippets from the article:
So government intervention should be used in one way to meet your preference, but not used in another way to once again meet your preference.What about the preferences of other people?
I read on Slashdot that China and certain firms are moving investments into the Yen. Can anyone here confirm this move?
The “computers did it” accusation is silly. Unless it’s a software bug, computers didn’t do anything but serve their customers. It seems that statists, and especially government officials, are trying to deny that this could actually be a real response to economic events.
You cannot, as an investor, be in the market until these outrageous practices are permanently barred from the exchanges.
The owners of a particular exchange could regulate HFT (high frequency trading), couldn’t they? E.g. they could choose to allow only one trade per microsecond, or one trade per day, or something else.
But I don’t understand why this trader would even want this kind of regulation. If you perceive an error made by another trader (human or computer), then doesn’t it make more sense to exploit it, than to whine about it? On the other hand, if the computer is making better decisions than you are, then maybe you should invest in the fund that it’s managing.
Partly, it’s true that computers are automated in terms of particular events in index changes, but…
It’s the people that decide which events are more meaningful than others which make the computers
actions meaningful. A computer without the person programming, or rather intending (to give meaning),
will never act. A computer like any machine needs a rational being that can decide the meaningfulness
of an event. A computer simply obeys the rules (heuristics) that it was given, and it will do so without error, syntactically.
I had a hard time getting some orders to go through as this was happening yesterday, ones that typically go through in a second and weren’t on the problem stocks P&G/3M/etc.
But I don’t understand why this trader would even want this kind of regulation. If you perceive an error made by another trader (human or computer), then doesn’t it make more sense to exploit it, than to whine about it? On the other hand, if the computer is making better decisions than you are, then maybe you should invest in the fund that it’s managing.
The computers are a good thing, except that government idiots will probably use them as an excuse for the coming financial regulations. Guaranteed-issue health care plans are already coming to market, and the public has long forgotten “health care reform”. The obvious next noose to tighten is Wall St.
I read on Slashdot that China and certain firms are moving investments into the Yen. Can anyone here confirm this move?
Since the Yen is back around 90 after a couple years at 110-120, it makes sense as part of the story. Then there is not only China, but the whole world, questioning the dollar as a reserve currency. Still, China depends on US survival to some degree, and there has been the trend of Chinese firms making offerings on American exchanges. I’m not sure specifically what you are talking about.
Yep. It’s like trading by proxy. I suppose this stuff can be banned from exchanges for the same reason that bots are banned from MMORPGs.