Very interesting article here, about the person that figured it out and how, it also shows you the value of a couple of milliseconds, that and some very fast programs to analyze trades.

Not only is this illegal, but makes you realize that the actual volume of shares being moved on the market is inflated, if you place an order for 100,000 shares of Apple and someone reads your order and places the same order milliseconds before you to turn around and sell you those 100,000 shares at a profit, well that's 200,000 shares in volume, without the intercept only 100,000 shares would have been moved.

Should be interesting to see what the Feds do about this.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-the-u...market-rigged/
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*I spoke out of turn, this isn't illegal, because it's never been done before, so technically it's not front running.

Yes there are other trades, market limit trades and the like, but you aren't going to have everyone change their trade types over night to stop things like this and many companies don't do trading that way.

Either way, I think the forensics of it is as interesting as anything else.
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Building a better mouse. What an interesting story! Thanks for sharing.
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Not to sound the cynic (OK. I lied. I do intend to),
but the stock market exists for the benefit of those
who run it (traders) & their buddies (institutional giants).
The rest of us are just along for the ride & hope we don't
get too screwwwed. Illusion at its finest.
The Emperor unclothed, as it may be.
The world's largest legitimate craps table, and much like
casinos, the odds are rigged against you.

Gee. I hope I don't sound tooooo bitter...........
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As a finance major I spent the majority of my time college diving into the stock market, forex, and other investment markets.

As far as "investing" goes I believe there is money to be made. You just have to be able to be good at picking winners. There is nothing "rigged" with WLMT, SBUX, MSFT, etc. They are few and far between but everyone would be rich if they weren't. It takes time and hours of dedication doing financial analysis and making decisions.

As far as "trading" goes, I believe this is a blind luck/gamble way of using the stock market. I don't see how people can use technical analysis as a means of an investment strategy, that doesn't take into account economic sociology factors.

I enjoyed the piece on 60 minutes last night and was very intrigued in how they figured out "how the market works". I think that guy is going to make himself a pretty penny!
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