Non-fiction

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

Name: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
Author: Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis

30 minAudio9 insights

What you'll learn

•How high-frequency trading transformed Wall Street into a high-speed arms race.
•The technological and infrastructural changes that enabled latency arbitrage.
•The complex market structure with multiple exchanges and dark pools.
•The personal stories of key figures who uncovered market manipulation.
•The design and launch of the Investors Exchange (IEX) to restore fairness.
•The ongoing challenges of regulatory capture and conflicts of interest.
•The moral and practical difficulties in reforming modern financial markets.

Who should read this

✓Investors seeking to understand modern stock market dynamics
✓Finance professionals interested in market structure and regulation
✓Technology enthusiasts curious about fintech and trading algorithms
✓Students of economics and financial markets

About this book

An eye-opening investigation into high-frequency trading and the fight to create a fairer stock market.

Did You Know?

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The term 'Flash Boys' was popularized by Michael Lewis to describe high-frequency traders.

2 more facts available in the app

Audio Summary

Section 1

The Invisible Race: How Speed Became Wall Street’s New Currency

3:45

10 Sections

Preview: The Invisible Race: How Speed Became Wall Street’s New Currency

Imagine a world where the blink of an eye is too slow, where fortunes are made and lost in the space of microseconds. This is the hidden world of high-frequency trading, where speed is king and the race is invisible to most. In this realm, the difference between winning and losing can be a few thousandths of a second. Behind the scenes, a secret fiber-optic tunnel was constructed, stretching 827 miles in a near-perfect straight line from Chicago to New Jersey. This was no ordinary infrastructure project; it was a covert mission to cut precious milliseconds off data transmission time, giving its owners a lightning-fast edge.

Workers digging the tunnel were kept in the dark about its true purpose, told only to say they were 'laying fiber.' The route defied conventional wisdom, cutting through mountains and under rivers in a way that seemed crazy to those who saw it. But for the financial world, it was a game changer.

Latency—the time delay in sending and receiving data—became the new battleground. In a market once dominated by human traders shouting on trading floors, computers now rule, executing trades faster than any eye can see. Every microsecond shaved off the path between exchanges translates into millions of dollars. This arms race for speed has driven firms to spend hundreds of millions on infrastructure, hardware, and software, all to gain the smallest edge.

But this speed comes at a cost—not just financial but ethical. The market, once a public arena of equal access, became fragmented and opaque, favoring those who could afford the fastest connections. The secret tunnel was just the beginning of a deeper transformation, one that would reveal the market's hidden mechanics and inequalities.

As we journey further, we will meet the individuals who uncovered these hidden truths, their struggles, and their quest to restore fairness to a market that seems rigged by speed and secrecy. This first step sets the stage for understanding how technology reshaped Wall Street and why the race for speed matters to everyone who invests or trades.

Now, let us delve into the intricate web of market mechanics that hide in plain sight, where multiple exchanges and dark pools create a labyrinth few understand.