Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Michael Lewis never, ever (ever) disappoints. And this book was no exception.
Released with little pre-press lead-up, this book starts with a detailed description of a fiberoptic cable being laid through the Alleghany Mountains. *Through*, not *around*, being the operative word - because going through the mountains reduces the computer latency between NY and Chicago by a couple of milliseconds, and this is how people make money.
Lewis looks into this dark, weird, shady part of the financial industry, called "high frequency trading" that basically exploits unnatural benefits like millisecond differences in who has information when. His narrative follows some guys at Royal Bank of Canada who figure out what is going on and set out to find a different way to more fairly operate a stock exchange. As usual with Lewis, the characters were well-developed and appealing to follow.
Though the book was heavily criticized by insiders as being everything from entirely untrue to being a sales pitch for this new exchange, I think it's a case where criticism is indicating concern on the part of the incumbents.
As a stockholder, I was horrified by this book. As a reader, I was enthralled.
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