FLASH TRADING
[Capitalist finance:] A recent type of sneaky stock trading by brokerage firms on Wall Street
which has the two following characteristics:
1) The brokerage firm secretly monitors for
its own benefit the buying and selling of stocks by its customers, and if the orders are
substantial (and thus might affect the price of the stock), makes purchases or sales for its
own account as well. (And sometimes also sells a 30 milli-second sneak preview to
other speculators.); and
2) The use of very high speed computers to
make its own purchases and sales of stock so that its own trading will occur before
that of its customers.
This is yet another form of thievery by the
financial capitalists, though in this case it involves cheating other financial speculators.
Apparently flash trading is currently legal. (As of August 2009 the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission is considering making flash trading against its rules, though it is
far from clear how they will be able to enforce such new rules.)
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