High-Frequency Traders Are the Ultimate Hackers, Says Mark Cuban 538
An anonymous reader writes "Billionaire Mark Cuban talks in an interview with the Wall Street Journal about how he thinks high-frequency trading can be quite damaging to stock markets. He goes so far as to call high-frequency traders the 'ultimate hackers.' He says, 'They're running software programs that have one goal, and that's to exploit the trading systems as early and often as possible. As someone who wrote software for eight years and who keeps up very closely with the technology world, that scared the hell out of me. The only certainty in the software world is that there is no such thing as bug-free software. When software programs are trying to outsmart other software programs and hack the world's trading platforms, that is a recipe for disaster. ... How many times an hour are there failures across individual equities around the world because of software running algorithms battling each other for supremacy to make a profitable trade? We have no idea. It's not a question of if or when we have meltdowns, it's just a question of how big and where. It's straight out of War Games. And that's before we even get to the possibility of nefarious or sovereign hackers getting involved.'"
Predictably... (Score:0, Funny)
Re:Is it illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is it illegal? (Score:4, Funny)
it is pure, unrestrained capitalism. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, if you look at the history of capitalism,
this will probably end with the USA invading another country over the price of bananas.
Monkey business I tell you, it's all monkey business.
Re:It's also highly questionable (Score:4, Funny)
You know what happens when that gap grows too big?
Pitchforks.
Re:Predictably... (Score:4, Funny)
"Greed is an innate flaw in human thinking under most circumstances. It's not some magic rocket fuel that impels society towards greater wealth and innovation. That's a bullshit narrative told to you by drug addicts who don't want to be separated from their drug . And nothing more."
Bingo. Greed is manifestation of survival instinct, hyperbolised by emotions and feelings and "know how" around in your society. How it come that most greedy people are from societies who are created by people most in need? Because they are *afraid* to go where they once were. Hunger and feeling of being poor and misarble is something what kicks survival instinct into berzerk mode. US was created by poor but determined people to live better. Determination isn't bad in it's case, but overlooking wider implications of despair and our instincts, thinking that only they matter, is problem. Problem is that people who learn to live this way usually also fuel their positive loop that they can't be wrong with fully trusting their survival instinct.
Re:Can you explain? (Score:2, Funny)