Trading Commodities and Financial Futures: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Markets, Fourth Edition

7. Algorithms Eliminating People

“Relax,” said the night man, “We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, But you can never leave!”

—The Eagles, “Hotel California,” 1976

An electric tension fills the air as Louis Winthorpe III and Billy Ray Valentine muscle their way through the crowd of traders lining the New York Board of Trade’s orange juice trading pit. The traders are sweating from heat generated by more than 100 tightly packed bodies, nervous with the anticipation of what’s to come. The clerks, manning the phones surrounding the pit, are on high alert.

The crop report will be released in five minutes. When those numbers are released, the market will move big time, creating (and destroying) fortunes in the process. ...