CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Today's Forex Market
Algorithmic trading, high-frequency trading, computer trading—regardless of the name you choose to use for this type of trading, is it really to blame for global chaos?
Some suggest high-frequency, quick-buck artists are the cause for the pillaging of our financial system since the turn of the century. Everybody needs to have a culprit it seems, and a group to finger point at as the source. Flash crashes, tech booms, bubbles, and bankruptcies are monthly events these days. The financial system was placed on steroids when the computer was introduced into our open-auction pit trading society at the end of the twentieth century. Entire nations are now being traded like penny stocks on a minute to minute basis. There are price moves so volatile that they make the 1987 crash look like a mediocre event. When the finger is pointed at computer traders as the source of the economic evil, we have to agree to a point, but we agree with a smile. Do you see the world pointing the finger at Henry Ford for the cause of the air pollution problem and global warming? Our culture demands a timely and efficient mode of getting from point A to B. As Maverick and Goose stated in Top Gun, “We have a need for speed.”
A NEW PLAYING FIELD
The introduction of the computer into our business wasn't welcome at first. We liked the person-to-person deal making in the open-auction environment. But if we wanted to stay in our business, we needed to embrace the new ...
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