If you were kickin' around in 1959 and remember Dinah Washington...ahh the memories. So it's 2013 or some little yuppie called in the other day 20X+3 and like the old testament, a day is like a second....and for some a second is a lifetime.A mere blip of unrest surfaced the other day in the Chicago Mercantile. It seems that some technology was giving some traders on the floor a 1/10th of a second advantage - that is literally the blink of an eye - and since trades are mostly electronic, well you can do a whole lot in a 0.1 of a second; a whole lot.
If you think stock trading is an even up game you are sorely mistaken. Huge percentages of the daily trading volume on the NYSE are made by daytraders...and not 1% or 10% but sometimes well over half and a lot of it is done right at the opening bell. Day traders make their money a few pennies at a time..just real often and very very fast so a 1 second advantage over the rest of the field is a huge headstart. They are getting out of a position when the average Joe hits the buy button and its all technology.
The result is that prices chase one another and stampedes happen. Where the is a huge sell off for no good reason and a stock takes a ride as one position is replaced by another and the sucker who is late to the party gets whacked. Can you, the average Joe, purchase this technology? Perhaps but the cost of it will wipe out your normal profits so its a bulk thing, a conglomerate high roller toy, and when Schoenfeld's minions play with their toys and one shop with 200 or so brokers plays hardball and trades 10% of the market volume for a given day, well grab your ass and run cause the big pigs are heading for the trough and you are the guy with the feed in his hand.
So don't tell me these guys shouldn't be taxed out the wazoo. They are living off you.