[flacaltenn]

JonL:

I'm an engineer/scientist type. Really worship numbers, and logic and that crap.. When someone complains about computers involved in "algorithmically skimming" because we can now make trades in microseconds, rather than hours -- i look for a model..

You've watched a stock ticker for a couple minutes during trading. Where does it go? It TRENDS higher or lower over minutes, maybe hours, but in the course of a SECOND? It might be +/- $0.02. If you limited trades to a SECOND, rather than MILLIONTH of SECOND, would it make any difference? 100,000 shares "skimming" $0.02 makes a cool $2000. However, if you program in the "trend" and sit around awhile longer, you might be able to "optimize" that transaction to $4000 or so..

So it isn't the SPEED of trading that has potential for "skimming". Just like an ICE engine computer doesn't need to sample the sensors at a microsecond. A millisecond will do just fine. Probably what you're calling skimming are just the algorithms that have been developed to optimize a trade. (I've got NO problem with that) And to some extent, the most measly day trader now has the power on his desktop to do analysis and hook into the market in ways that were unimaginable just 10 years ago. Sure, the big guys put MORE effort into "algorithms". It takes a lot of the human emotion out of analyzing the "sensor inputs". And last time I check, even IBM'S Watson had yet to learn greed...

Just so you know I'm human -- if it's NOT just optimizing trades (which EVERY registered broker has access to), and there is massive theft goin' on -- please let ME know first. Then call the SEC...