How 最高の-急速な／放蕩な cable 網状組織s 許す City flash boys to fleece your 年金 of billions

• 仲買人s use 最高の-急速な／放蕩な internet to shave milliseconds off the time it takes to do 商売／仕事
• 専門家s believe the quicker internet has made city 仲買人s £12 billlion
  
• High frequency 仲買人s 直面するing 連邦検察局 調査（する） to 決定する whether they are 有罪の of insider 貿易（する）ing
  
• One 網状組織 昇格 cost £180 million to 完全にする to knock just five milliseconds off the time to send a message
  

By Tom Leonard

Published: 01:39 BST, 17 April 2014 | Updated: 01:40 BST, 17 April 2014

支援する in 2009, the world economy was in a 明言する／公表する of 深い stagnation, but in the U.S. 明言する／公表する of Illinois a small army of 2,000 construction men 武装した with spades and 演習s couldn’t have been busier.

Working in secrecy, they were 任命する／導入するing a 827-mile-long 地下組織の fibre-視覚の cable between Chicago and New York. There were already cables linking the two cities, but this one was different.

The 1?in-wide plastic tube 含む／封じ込めるing 400 hair-thin 立ち往生させるs of glass had to travel in a straight line, even if that meant passing it through mountains and under car parks and rivers.

仲買人s use 最高の-急速な／放蕩な broadband 関係s to 伸び（る） a 競争の激しい advantage on their 競争相手s (在庫／株 image)

The slightest kink in the 大勝する would 背負い込む the wrath of the 事業／計画（する）’s boss, who would exasperatedly tell engineers that even deviating by the width of a road would cost him 100 nanoseconds ― or a millionth of a second ― in the time it took for data to travel from one city to the other.

任命する／導入するing the cable was to cost £180 million, but the 投資家s behind it were 納得させるd it was going to make them very, very rich. For they had calculated that using this cable rather than the 存在するing, いっそう少なく direct, ones would 削減（する） the time it took to send a message between the two cities from 17 milliseconds to 13.

That’s a fraction of the time it takes to blink very quickly, yet the minuscule time difference is enough to 許す sophisticated computer programmes to 偉業／利用する profitably tiny price differences between the Chicago and New York 在庫／株 交流s.

These 分裂（する） seconds saved in the 伝達／伝染 of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, an 産業 専門家? calculated, were 価値（がある） an astonishing £12?billion a year to those who knew how to 偉業／利用する them. The new superfast cable would be used by around 200 貿易（する）ing companies, and its owners were asking each 可能性のある （弁護士の）依頼人 to 支払う／賃金 more than £8 million for the 特権.

Welcome to the 極端に lucrative world of ‘high-frequency tradi ng’ (HFT). This 伴う／関わるs the electronic buying and selling of 株 at 速度(を上げる）s thousands of times faster than any human can manage. Incredibly, these high-frequency 取引，協定s now （不足などを）補う half of the 貿易（する）s on America’s public 株式市場s.

The high-速度(を上げる） computers and internet 関係s shave milliseconds off the time it take to 貿易（する） which can lead to major 利益（をあげる）s

Yet によれば an incendiary new 調書をとる／予約する, Flash Boys: 割れ目ing The Money Code, by 主要な 財政上の 新聞記者／雑誌記者 Michael 吊りくさび, high-frequency 仲買人s are using the superspeed 科学（工学）技術 not to 改善する efficiency but to skim off ‘incalculable billions’ from 年金 and 投資 基金s, 損失ing 国家の economies in the 過程.

In 影響, he says, the 科学（工学）技術 enables these 仲買人s to manipulate the markets in their own favour.

The way they do this is fiendishly simple. Cables such as the New York-Chicago one are coupled to superfast computers which 許す the high-frequency 仲買人s to see the orders placed by everyone else on the 在庫／株 交流 ― from ordinary 投資家s like you and me to the biggest 年金 基金s ― milliseconds before the 取引，協定s の近くに.

Those milliseconds are all the high-frequency 仲買人s need to jump in ahead of the 初めの purchasers, snap up whatever those ordinary 投資家s were trying to buy, その為に 押し進めるing up the price a little, and then selling it to the 買い手 for a 利益（をあげる）.

While this may not be technically 違法な, によれば 吊りくさび, it is certainly unethical.

The world of High Frequency 貿易（する）ing while not 違法な is 見解（をとる）d by some as unethical

His depiction of these 仲買人s as a new 産む／飼育する of 財政上の parasite has inflamed passions on 塀で囲む Street and in the City of London.

Some 銀行業者s and 仲買人s have （刑事）被告 吊りくさび of over-明言する／公表するing the evils of HFT. But othe rs agree with him, arguing that high-frequency 仲買人s are able to buy too many 不公平な advantages over ordinary 投資家s, not just with those 最高の-急速な／放蕩な cables but also by 支払う／賃金ing 在庫／株 交流s for market （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） on planned 株 購入（する）s a fraction of a second before they happen.

Last week, one of 塀で囲む Street’s most 上級の 仲買人s, Charles Schwab, called HFT a ‘growing 癌’ that should be made 違法な. 仲買人s have created a ‘科学技術の 武器 race designed to 選ぶ the pockets of 合法的 market 関係者s’, he said.

Now, the 連邦検察局 has just 発表するd it will 調査／捜査する whether high-frequency 仲買人s are 有罪の of insider 貿易（する）ing.

American author Michael 吊りくさび? is a former London 仲買人 whose previous 調書をとる／予約するs, Liar’s Poker and The Big Short, have also exposed the banking world’s misdeeds.

Flash Boys 明らかにする／漏らすs that today’s high-frequency 貿易（する）ing rooms are deathly 静かな. Nobody 叫び声をあげるs ‘Sell! Sell! Sell!’ or frantically waves slips of paper, because it is computers that do the actual 貿易（する）ing as …に反対するd to people.

Since the advent of high-速度(を上げる） computers, the sound of 仲買人s on the 床に打ち倒す shouting 'sell' is a thing of the past in places like the New York 在庫／株 交流 (pictured)

And these 最高の-力／強力にするd mainframe computers use sophisticated ソフトウェア 許すing them to 精査する through acres of 財政上の data looking for price discrepancies and 分裂（する）-second 貿易（する）ing 適切な時期s which they can then automatically 偉業／利用する. The price movements might be tiny but, with millions of 貿易（する）s each day, it 追加するs up into a multi-billion 続けざまに猛撃する 商売／仕事.

The 仲買人s ― many of them maths and physics 卒業生（する）s ― spend their days sitting in 前線 of a bank of computer 審査するs, 星／主役にするing at endless 人物／姿／数字s scrolling in 前線 of them to make sure the machines don’t slip up.

Whatever the morality, HFT is now a major 軍隊 in markets across the world: high-frequency 仲買人s are even 戦う／戦いing for an 辛勝する／優位 on the 貿易（する）ing communication links between London and New York.

A new 最高の-速度(を上げる） fibre-視覚の cable is 存在 laid across the 大西洋, taking a more direct 大勝する than 存在するing cables. Again, the time saving ― just 5.2 milliseconds ― is minuscule but, for those who 貿易（する） in both the U.S. and UK, 潜在的に 価値（がある） millions.

So how, 正確に／まさに, does HFT work?

Say you want to buy 50,000 株 in 示すs & Spencer. You place your order ― either electronically or over the phone ― to a 仲買人 or bank, which then tries to find the best price by getting its computer to search the さまざまな 在庫／株 交流s.

But the computer request from the 仲買人 or bank takes a small 量 of time to reach those 交流s electronically. In that small time 延期する, the HFTs pounce, buying the 50,000 M&S 株, which 押し進めるs up the market price very わずかに, and then selling them to you for a 利益（をあげる） at the higher price.

In 2006, one man 始める，決める out to find out 正確に／まさに what the high-frequency 仲買人s were up to. Brad Katsuyama, the hero of Michael 吊りくさび’s 調書をとる／予約する, was a 穏やかな-mannered 銀行業者 who worked for the 王室の Bank of Canada in New York, who 簡単に couldn’t understand what was happening on his computer 審査する.

He would find thousands of 株 利用できる for sale at a 確かな price. But when he 押し進めるd the ‘buy’ button, he might be able to buy a small 百分率 of them at the 権利 price ― only for the 残り／休憩（する） to have become suddenly more expensive.

When other 仲買人s told him the same thing was happening to them, Katsuyama began to 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う they were 存在 manipulated. But how 正確に／まさに? The 解答, he 結局 discovered, was laughably simple. The closer a 仲買人 was to a 株式市場’s computer base, the quicker it would receive his message.

The 連邦検察局 (pictured) has 開始する，打ち上げるd an 調査 as to whether High Frequency 仲買人s have been 有罪の of insider 貿易（する）ing

And so, when he put in an order for 株 that had to be met by several 交流s ― there are 13 different 交流s in the U.S. ― only the closest one to him in geographical 条件 would sell the 株 at the 初めの price.

At the same time, the computers of high-frequency 仲買人s would be able to see his 意向 to buy 株 in that particular 商品／必需品, and ― 偉業／利用するing their 分裂（する）-second advantage ― would buy up those 株 at the 交流s that were その上の away, then 申し込む／申し出 them 支援する to the 初めの 買い手 at a higher price. Thus the 買い手 ― whether a 私的な 投資家 or a 巨大（な） 年金 基金 ― would 結局最後にはーなる 支払う／賃金ing more.

High-frequency 貿易（する）ing can happen anywhere, but it 作品 best when there is a fragmented market ― in other words, not one but lots of 交流s, preferably some distance away from each other.
In Britain, for example, the London 在庫／株 交流 is in the City, but there are six others. BATS 全世界の Markets, a U.S. company, built one some miles away in t he Docklands area of the East End. Another, Chi-X, has been built west of London in Slough. The New York 在庫／株 交流 also has a British 支店 in Basildon, Essex.

Each new 交流 has been linked to the others by ― guess what? ― new high-速度(を上げる） cable links.
If you were of a 怪しげな turn of mind, says Michael 吊りくさび, you might notice that these new 交流s are always 位置を示すd a ‘surprising’ distance from the 初めの one.

His 関わりあい／含蓄 is （疑いを）晴らす: 交流s are 存在 始める，決める up at least partly with an 注目する，もくろむ on how they can be 偉業／利用するd by high-frequency 仲買人s, who will 支払う／賃金 for the 特権 of having 接近 to the fastest electronic links.

Last July, the UK’s 財政上の 行為／行う 当局 罰金d a corrupt America-based HFT 操作者, Michael Coscia, $903,000 (nearly £600,000) for deliberately manipulating prices on 貿易（する）s spanning the U.S. and the UK ― its first 活動／戦闘 against a high-frequency 仲買人.

This week the European Union 公約するd to 開始する，打ち上げる the toughest-yet 厳重取締り on these いわゆる ‘flash boys’, bring in new 支配するs to 軍隊 仲買人s to have their precious algorithms ― the programmes running 自動化するd 貿易（する）ing ― 実験（する）d and 規制するd.

Critics say there are many more corrupt 仲買人s out there, but high-frequency 貿易（する）ing is so murky it’s difficult to know who’s doing what. Now, Michael 吊りくさび’s 爆発性の new 調書をとる／予約する is putting 圧力 on 当局 to 調査／捜査する HFT その上の.

‘He’s managed to make everyone in this 商売／仕事 in credibly 防御の and look incredibly bad,’ a former high-frequency 仲買人 told me yesterday.

If this 列／漕ぐ／騒動 has exposed one glaring 証拠不十分 about HFT, it’s that it is so 複雑にするd that 事実上 nobody can explain 正確に／まさに how it 作品. That’s 正確に what was said about the sub-prime mortgage fiasco which led to the last 全世界の 財政上の 危機.

To 避ける another melt-負かす／撃墜する, would 仲買人s do 井戸／弁護士席 to spare a nanosecond or two to 反映する on that?