Python Developer - HFT Trading firm - Chicago, IL

[Emile van Sebille]

On 8/21/2010 10:32 AM Raymond Hettinger said...
> On Aug 21, 2:30 am, Lawrence D'Oliveiro<l... at geek-
> central.gen.new_zealand>  wrote:
>> Wasn’t HFT an exacerbating factor in just about every major stockmarket
>> downturn since, oh, 1987?
>
> IMO, it was a mitigating factor.
> HFT firms provide liquidity and help price discovery.
> Investor sentiment is what drives rallys and crashes.
>

Mitigating?  Trading applications that allow order-of-magnitude bad data 
through causing automated trading systems to follow suit dumping stock 
at a loss of billions sounds more like an instigating factor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/business/economy/07trade.html

Investor sentiment _should be_ what drives rallys and crashes, and 
likely is over extended periods, but appears no longer to be the only 
factor in market volatility.

Emile