from Hacker News

Destructive Destruction? An Ecological Study of High Frequency Trading

by mgunes on 4/22/15, 12:15 PM with 8 comments

• by aklein on 4/22/15, 6:55 PM

  The essay has quotes like this: "The market thus oscillates asymptotically around the attractor of zero information friction in an incomputably random orbit" which sound so mathematical as to invite a proof...

  ... and then quotes like this: "Algorithmic hordes of parasitic vampire squids and zombie capitalists compulsively gorge on blood and brains, their exhausted victims lie all around, twitching to the non-periodic outbursts of transient code – the singularity turns out to be just another accelerating extension of exploitation" ... which is so over the top that it works against whatever point the article is trying to make...

  ... which is completely obscured by pseudo-scientific technobabble. A big WTF here.

• by hxrts on 4/22/15, 7:17 PM

  I quite enjoyed the parallel made between physics and economics and the subsequent case against such a comparison. There is a strong argument against a traditional notion of efficient markets here.

• by bobcostas55 on 4/22/15, 6:15 PM

  This paper reads like it was made by the Postmodern Essay Generator...