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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (800632)	8/9/2014 6:11:56 PM
From: i-node	2 Recommendations Recommended By FJB TideGlider Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1578439

>> The Heritage Foundation is hardly an objective source. You let me know when you find an "objective source" on the subject of economics.

To: combjelly who wrote (800632)	8/10/2014 12:12:37 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1578439

>> How does high frequency trading benefit anybody but the ones doing it? Every transaction in reported markets conveys information to the greater market. Now, I'm not in favor of selected traders having a built-in advantage. But I can remember a time when my broker would quote $20-1/4 a share and by the time he made my trade 15 minutes later, I was paying 20-1/2 or 20-3/4. And I paid huge commissions on top of that. I'm sure my old broker is long retired by now; but I left him when online trading began. And markets are far more fair an efficient today than at anytime in history. These are just intricacies of the market processes. If a man can afford to buy a better pipe to the market, more power to him. Trades generate information and transmit -- information for buyers, information for sellers which we all take advantage of. Once again, I'll question the true rationale, which is how one would go about making it fairer. There is a reason markets are used world wide for trading, and that reason is there is no better way of doing it. Do some people have unfair advantages? Of course. They always have. If HFT drives up my cost, fine -- I can capitalize on that when it drives up the next guy's cost if I choose to. >> As a result, commodity prices have been rising ever since. From aluminum to food, prices have been driven up for no other reason but speculation. As the Hunt Brothers proved in 1980, even vast sums of money in controlled speculation can be lost in an instant. People are free to take, or not take, risks -- in exchange for a potential reward which only they can weigh. Over the years I've taken insane risks at times, and sometimes win and sometimes lose. If that is my choice, I'm not sure what your complaint is. The idea of blaming commodity speculation for increasing prices of the underlying is pretty much nonsense. There is no statistical proof of it, and there is no rationale for it (since supply and demand for the underlying is unaltered). OTOH, if someone wants to speculate by taking delivery of the underlying (which COULD affect prices) I don't see what business it is of anyone's. They can either pay more for the product or wait until it becomes cheaper. Your point, apparently, is that government should step in and control supply and demand in some way. And I would just point to any of a very large number of examples of government doing just that and wrecking the normal market processes that have worked well since forever. (Just look at health care).