new Dr. Al chart

[Baha]

Hi ND,

I saw the book in a group on yahoo.

[alexashka]

NDscorpini,

Apologies, tried to find my answer in urban dictionary and few other places, unsuccessfully so. What is the meaning (context) of "flash boys"?

(Sorry all, unfamiliar with that one *-*)

Thank you. Alex.

[NDscorpini]

All I can do is give you the quote word for word.

"It is fine if you do this, but you must be careful to trade at a very low level, since the Flash Boys and the banks can and will attack an "uppetty" trader, especially if they shoot their mouth off too much."

I know uppity is spelled wrong but that is what he wrote me. Your guess is as good as mine.
Best wishes,
NDscorpini

[NDscorpini]

Baha,
I see what happened. Scribd use to be a free service then they wanted you to add a book to download a book. I had posted some W.D. Gann books cause I figured he wouldn't come back and sue me. Somehow my name got confused with authoring the book rather than the one who posted it. Now it makes sense.
Best wishes,
NDscorpini

[earik]

Was this a scalping strategy or something? Back when I worked at the CBOT (upstairs, not downstairs), I'd talk with the floor traders about this sort of thing. Since everyone basically knew everyone, it was very obvious who the good traders and bad traders were (and who the FBI agents pretending to be traders were!), and a lot of times when you were bored and didn't know what to do, you'd just fade the losers and make a few ticks. But no one actually went after those bad traders to "get" them, as in pushing the whole market around just to make sure one guy takes a loss. It was more like taking advantage of a really accurate contrary indicator.

I like Al a lot, and respect his work, but in this case, it sounds like he might have read one too many of the Wall Street conspiracy books that are so popular these days. As long as you're not risking your whole account on every trade or something stupid, then just run the account up until you're so huge that you can't help but get noticed. Then, if you ever get taken out by a Flash Boy , you'll have taken one losing trade, but will be so far ahead at that point it won't even matter.

I'm sure the reference he was making was to the "Flash Boys" book, which was about getting poor slippage due to HFT shennanigans in the stock market. So rather than buying at 100.00, some sneaky bot sits there and bids the market up a penny right before your order gets in, they sell to you at an inflated price (100.01), and then cash out immediately after back at 100.00. Not exactly the same thing as someone targeting you personally though, unless that someone can recognize your trade and take action in the matter of microseconds. And if you are trading with one penny stops, then yeah, you're probably going to get taken out in the end, but it won't be anything personal - it will just be market noise that does it.

Regards,

Earik

[Baha]

I have read Michael Lewis' "Flash boys." It is about the HFT (High Frequency Trading) firms and how they operate. The book was eye opening for me. It may be written to serve a purpose for somebody else's agenda but I felt like it was definitely worth my time.
Basically, these guys front run everybody with speed and tax the whole system. And taxing the system that way is bad business for everyone.

If you are a swing trader, like me, trading a contract or two I don't think their presence will make a lot of difference. But If you are an equity hedge fund manager buying a million shares of a stock it is a different story. Or if you are a pension fund buying stocks with retiree money, again, it is a different story.

These people tax the system and they claim to provide liquidity. As far as I am aware they are flat at the end of the day, so I don't see them providing liquidity either. I think it is really unfair. As I mentioned before, taxing the system is bad business for everyone. Markets are there to allocate capital. Money is the blood that flows to the companies. Companies use that money on capex or hiring more people reducing unemployment. These guys are like leeches on the vain. They tax the whole system causing friction.

Using intelligence, hard work, competitive edge and coming up with automated trading systems is not what I am talking about. That is probably good for the markets. I am talking about the firms who front run everyone, including Warren Buffet, in an oligopolistic fashion.

Anyway, I am not sure if Dr. Al is talking about the flashboys I mean. Considering his age, maybe he is pointing to a group of people who were track champions in college and happened to be traders on the floor of an exchange and outrun all the traders during open outcry. Coincidentally, one of them was named Gordon.

[Simon.B]

I agree Baha, especially about the fact that they do not provide any added liquidity at all. If anything goes haywire in the Market HFT's are first to pull all bids and offers. Also, they mostly concentrate on about 125 most liquid stocks, for obvious reasons, which already have plenty of liquidity. Their argument is so weak that it only exposes how greedy and unfair Exchanges really are. And how compliance bodies are simply letting it happen...on orders from higher up I'm sure.

[NDscorpini]

He has balls...plasma balls that is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFzNAGFnvo

Best wishes,
NDscorpini

p.s.
You know he is drawing in the FOP after the fact.

[soldado1976]

My first foray into this world was with Al. I took all the courses and, just like college and my Masters degree, got what I needed and forgot the rest. The courses have changed my views of the markets and the FOP can be one amazing thing to watch unfold. I never use the FOG but the CTME course has one component that had been a game changer for me. I have spoken with Al more than once and would love to sit down over a beer with him.

As for the plasma balls, if you have a chart set up
One way and it looks good to you but it doesn't look good to another trader so be it. No reason to trash the guy.

[Baha]

Curious, Are the Hans Hanulla books out there his?
Any useful material?