Technology In The Article: How Has The Stock Market Changed?

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Technology has granted the elite a way to remain as front runners in the stock market, while the novice and minor traders remain uninformed and abused by the higher echelon of traders. Steve Kroft stated in his 60 minutes report “ The trades are being made by thousands of robot computers, programmed to buy and sell every stock on the market at speeds 100 times faster than you can blink an eye” (2). How does the amateur trader compete with this? It’s unattainable without equal resources. Although these programs are available to everyone on the market, Michael Lewis continued Steve Kroft’s comment by saying “ The insiders are able to move faster than you. They’re able to see your order and play it against other orders in ways that you don’t …show more content…

Fuhrmann, Fuhrmann writes that, Technology, and the subsequent shift to program trading by computers, has been a major market shift. This has allowed trading volume to skyrocket. The Stock Market Crash of 1987, which saw the Dow plummet 507.99 points or, 22.61% on Oct. 19, 1987, was blamed on program trading that caused investors to rush for the exits in an extreme example of herd behavior. Currently, there has been speculation that flash traders, or investment shops that employ high frequency trading to buy and sell huge amounts of stocks, are creating unusually heavy market volatility (1). With this new influx of technology in the market, trading is being done at such a rapid rate that companies can’t keep up with the changing times. Therefore one day, a company could have millions of dollars worth of investors and the next day have only thousands. Money is being moved at such a rapid rate that the Dow is changing at higher percentiles than have ever been seen …show more content…

Cheap and efficient trading is what securities traders wanted and that is what they got. Volumes transacted saw unprecedented increases, with the average daily number of trades going through the ceiling”(1.) This attests to the idea that with the advances made in technology today, Wall street will not be able to keep up. The “nerds” of society will be able front run the stock market and make more money in seconds than anyone could ever imagine. The speed in which trading is being done is faster than a blink of an eye. Front runners are making trades before most traders are even aware that the market is open. It is all done in a split of a second and millions of dollars worth too. Traders have been waiting forever to be able to trade at large volumes in an instant. This is what they now have with services such as HFT and EFTs. The stock market is a place where people can make millions, if they have the money to begin with

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