<story><title>A Moneymaking Machine Like Few Others</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-21/how-renaissance-s-medallion-fund-became-finance-s-blackest-box?cmpid%253D=socialflow-twitter-hedgebrief</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pedalpete</author><text>I completely agree with you, but think your comment should be moderated down from &amp;#x27;They produce nothing usable&amp;#x27;, to &amp;#x27;They are paid exorbitant amounts compared to the value the produce for society as a whole&amp;#x27;.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;but they manage your retirement fund&amp;quot;, really? do they? last I checked there are algorithms running the entire show and making sure I and every other little investor get screwed for every 10th of a cent so that a few investors at the top who already have loads of money can have more. They&amp;#x27;ve made a game out of moving money and skimming a bit off the top all the time. Let&amp;#x27;s not forget that they are actually taking money from your 401k every time they make these trades. Let&amp;#x27;s not pretend the financiers care about you, the little guy.&lt;p&gt;Another comment mentioned that YC is in finance, but let&amp;#x27;s be clear, YC is financing start-up businesses and helping them to grow. They&amp;#x27;re small finance. When I buy a share in Facebook, I&amp;#x27;m not helping it grow, I&amp;#x27;m betting on it&amp;#x27;s growth and the big finance industry is just the casino.</text></item><item><author>gdne</author><text>I feel sad that so much brain power goes into market arbitrage. They produce nothing usable by anyone else. Imagine if these people built companies that made new advances and new products.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>encoderer</author><text>Spreads on liquid stocks are a penny now. Most limit orders are price improved by a few tenths of a cent -- a better price than you asked for. These are both courtesy of algorithmic trading. If a HFT trader does arb between two diff exchanges he&amp;#x27;s not hurting you. You&amp;#x27;re conflating it with front running your orders. That is not really a problem for a retail trader who isn&amp;#x27;t moving large block trades.</text></comment>
<story><title>A Moneymaking Machine Like Few Others</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-21/how-renaissance-s-medallion-fund-became-finance-s-blackest-box?cmpid%253D=socialflow-twitter-hedgebrief</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pedalpete</author><text>I completely agree with you, but think your comment should be moderated down from &amp;#x27;They produce nothing usable&amp;#x27;, to &amp;#x27;They are paid exorbitant amounts compared to the value the produce for society as a whole&amp;#x27;.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;but they manage your retirement fund&amp;quot;, really? do they? last I checked there are algorithms running the entire show and making sure I and every other little investor get screwed for every 10th of a cent so that a few investors at the top who already have loads of money can have more. They&amp;#x27;ve made a game out of moving money and skimming a bit off the top all the time. Let&amp;#x27;s not forget that they are actually taking money from your 401k every time they make these trades. Let&amp;#x27;s not pretend the financiers care about you, the little guy.&lt;p&gt;Another comment mentioned that YC is in finance, but let&amp;#x27;s be clear, YC is financing start-up businesses and helping them to grow. They&amp;#x27;re small finance. When I buy a share in Facebook, I&amp;#x27;m not helping it grow, I&amp;#x27;m betting on it&amp;#x27;s growth and the big finance industry is just the casino.</text></item><item><author>gdne</author><text>I feel sad that so much brain power goes into market arbitrage. They produce nothing usable by anyone else. Imagine if these people built companies that made new advances and new products.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aianus</author><text>What would a FB IPO have looked like without the expectation of a deep and liquid secondary market for the lifetime of the company?&lt;p&gt;If the secondary market wasn&amp;#x27;t so big and efficient, it would be more expensive for everyone to raise capital, from large corporations to one man seed rounds.</text></comment>