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I have found the exact opposite with Flash Boys (and, to a certain extent, with Big Short - although that is less my area of expertise) If you have read Flash B

I have found the exact opposite with Flash Boys (and, to a certain extent, with Big Short - although that is less my area of expertise) If you have read Flash Boys and you are interested in the other side of the story I suggest reading a very well edited point-by-point rebuttal: http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Insiders-Perspective-High-Frequency-ebook/dp/B00P0QI2M2 http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Insiders-Perspective-High-F...

cconcepts 11y ago
Do you have any examples/references pertaining to The Big Short?
- elecengin 11y ago
  This isn't bad: http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-big-short-movie-gets-rightand-wrongabout-the-financial-crisis-1449843231 http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-big-short-movie-gets-ri... While Big Short doesn't seem as factually challenged as Flash Boys, it is over-simplified. Either Michael Lewis falls short of his goal of producing an unbiased representation complex issues in a "pop non-fiction" form, or his goal is different and he is a biased observer forming a cohesive story from a cherry-picked selection of facts.
tptacek 11y ago
Unreserved recommendation for _Flash Boys: Not So Fast_ if you like nerding out on this stuff. It's much geekier than Lewis' book.
- edanm 11y ago
  Is it worth reading if I haven't read Flash Boys? (I'm planning to read both, so I'm mostly just curious).
  - tptacek 11y ago
    So, I'm a nerd, and I found "Not So Far" more interesting than Lewis's book. I don't think you need to read Lewis' book to get value out of the rebuttal.
  - elecengin 11y ago
    I would suggest reading both at the same time. The rebuttal is organized to follow along with the format of the book just for this purpose.
  - dgraunke 11y ago
    I read Not So Fast without reading Flash Boys, and enjoyed it a lot. Learned a lot about market microstructure.
BookmarkSaver 11y ago
I've had a couple people who work in high frequency trading say that Flash Boys is extremely inaccurate, but they still recommend The Big Short. I've not really heard anything significantly negative about TBS though I'm sure there are probably disputed opinions about it out there. And while the character narratives in TBS could be entirely fabricated (I mean, I'm sure they aren't totally false), the underlying issues and events line up with my previous understanding of the crisis.
- remarkEon 11y ago
  My father worked at one of the Hedge Funds referenced in The Big Short for about 15 years, and was there during the collapse. I've talked to him ad nauseam about these books and the only one he didn't like was Flash Boys, but calls The Big Short "sort of scary" in how accurate it was. In reference to Flash Boys he said that the technical aspects of how HFT works were so poorly illustrated that he couldn't really take the book serious and felt that it would limit his ability to further consider future Michael Lewis books. Wish I understood more of that, but his point was, I think, that it's not as nefarious as it's often made out to be.
  - Nrsolis 11y ago
    Look, HFT as a concept is already black magic to people who trade. It's a fundamentally simple idea but when you actually try to apply it to a real living breathing market, it becomes indistinguishable from electronic warfare because that's what it is! A lot of the shenanigans that people point to are just different techniques to try and suss out the market microstructure and are in effect no different from trading techniques that evolved in the 1920s. The best HFT book I ever read was "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" because if you look at what he's saying and then replace the people in the book with electronic agents, you end up right where we are with HFT.
    - remarkEon 11y ago
      Thanks for the book recommendation. I'll definitely take a look and pass it on.

cconcepts 11y ago

Do you have any examples/references pertaining to The Big Short?

elecengin 11y ago
This isn't bad: http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-big-short-movie-gets-rightand-wrongabout-the-financial-crisis-1449843231 http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-big-short-movie-gets-ri... While Big Short doesn't seem as factually challenged as Flash Boys, it is over-simplified. Either Michael Lewis falls short of his goal of producing an unbiased representation complex issues in a "pop non-fiction" form, or his goal is different and he is a biased observer forming a cohesive story from a cherry-picked selection of facts.

tptacek 11y ago

Unreserved recommendation for _Flash Boys: Not So Fast_ if you like nerding out on this stuff. It's much geekier than Lewis' book.

edanm 11y ago
Is it worth reading if I haven't read Flash Boys? (I'm planning to read both, so I'm mostly just curious).
- tptacek 11y ago
  So, I'm a nerd, and I found "Not So Far" more interesting than Lewis's book. I don't think you need to read Lewis' book to get value out of the rebuttal.
- elecengin 11y ago
  I would suggest reading both at the same time. The rebuttal is organized to follow along with the format of the book just for this purpose.
- dgraunke 11y ago
  I read Not So Fast without reading Flash Boys, and enjoyed it a lot. Learned a lot about market microstructure.

BookmarkSaver 11y ago

I've had a couple people who work in high frequency trading say that Flash Boys is extremely inaccurate, but they still recommend The Big Short. I've not really heard anything significantly negative about TBS though I'm sure there are probably disputed opinions about it out there. And while the character narratives in TBS could be entirely fabricated (I mean, I'm sure they aren't totally false), the underlying issues and events line up with my previous understanding of the crisis.

remarkEon 11y ago
My father worked at one of the Hedge Funds referenced in The Big Short for about 15 years, and was there during the collapse. I've talked to him ad nauseam about these books and the only one he didn't like was Flash Boys, but calls The Big Short "sort of scary" in how accurate it was. In reference to Flash Boys he said that the technical aspects of how HFT works were so poorly illustrated that he couldn't really take the book serious and felt that it would limit his ability to further consider future Michael Lewis books. Wish I understood more of that, but his point was, I think, that it's not as nefarious as it's often made out to be.
- Nrsolis 11y ago
  Look, HFT as a concept is already black magic to people who trade. It's a fundamentally simple idea but when you actually try to apply it to a real living breathing market, it becomes indistinguishable from electronic warfare because that's what it is! A lot of the shenanigans that people point to are just different techniques to try and suss out the market microstructure and are in effect no different from trading techniques that evolved in the 1920s. The best HFT book I ever read was "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" because if you look at what he's saying and then replace the people in the book with electronic agents, you end up right where we are with HFT.
  - remarkEon 11y ago
    Thanks for the book recommendation. I'll definitely take a look and pass it on.