Quotes from book

Flash Boys

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt is a book by the American writer Michael Lewis, published by W. W. Norton & Company on March 31, 2014. The book is a non-fiction investigation into the phenomenon of high-frequency trading in the US equity market, with the author interviewing and collecting the experiences of several individuals working on Wall Street.” Lewis concludes that HFT is used as a method to front run orders placed by investors. He goes further to suggest that broad technological changes and unethical trading practices have transformed the U.S. stock market from "the world's most public, most democratic, financial market" into a "rigged" market.The book has drawn criticism from some academics and industry experts, particularly on Lewis's grasp of HFT and other factual inaccuracies in its depiction of trading. Other critics have praised Lewis's explanations of trading concepts and concurred with his criticism of HFT; however, it is suggested that he neglects to pay attention to the larger issue of financial regulation, and had excessively simplified the relationship between various institutions in the financial market. A few executives in the industry have also responded by dismissing the book's content as "closer to fiction".