Social Trading Platforms Basically Front Running?
I don't think you can really classify it as front running. Technically, the only information, that the alleged front runner in this case has over the followers is the knowledge of the trade itself. Knowledge of the trade may indeed be share price sensitive information (for some high volume traders or those respected and with many followers) but it's not really like they can't know about it before everyone else; parity isn't possible in this case. If an company/organisation (i.e. the social trading platform say) responsible for disseminating the details/log of a trader to a following (or individuals working for said company/organisation), were to act on the trading data before dissemination then THEY would be guilty of front running. The alleged front runner may profit from the following of course, but that's only really occurring due to the publication of information that is share price sensitive, and such information generally has to be published by law (if it is by law so classified) so it's difficult to find too much fault. There has to be a certain amount of consideration on the part of any trader as to who is more the fool, the fool or the fool that follows them?
I think this is off topic, but here is a stab: So these are cashless.  It could be a way to smooth out the harsh reality of capitalism (I overproduced my product, I have more capacity than I can sell) and I can trade those good to other capitalists who similarly poorly planned production or capacity. Therefore the market for a system like is limited to businesses that do not plan well.  Business that plan production or capacity to levels they can already sell for cash do not need a private system to offload goods. Alternatives to such a system include: (I don't know how many businesses are really in this over production / over capacity state.  If my assumption that it isn't many is wrong, my answer is garbage.) This is a bartering system with a brokerage.  I think we have historically found that common currencies create more trade and economic activity because the value of the note in your pocket, which is the same type of note in my pocket, is common and understood.  Exchange rates typically slow down trade.  (There are many other reasons to have different currency or notes on a global sale, but the exchange certainly is a hurdle to clear.) This brokerage is essentially adding a new currency (in a grand metaphor).  And that new currency is only spendable on their brokerage, which is of limited use to society as a whole, assuming that society as a whole isn't a participating member of that brokerage. I can't really think of why this type of exchange is better than the current system we have now.  I wouldn't invest in this as a business, or invest in this as a person looking for opportunity. Is used cmc markets application (via my bank at the time) to gain leveraged exposure to the financial markets, with no tax payable as its classed as gambling.  I am sure there are other websites/application offering the same. The results weren't particularly pretty for me, but the concept is sound imo. Lacking in any nuance as well...  For a while, the trend has been that more generic / flow products are on the downswing for profitability (while some individual traders are still outliers), but the stuff that is not able to be commoditized is actually paying more in many cases.  Essentially, follow the money, and look at more than the surface. Value investing is just an investment strategy, it's an alternative to technical investing. Buffet made money picking stocks.  It's not obvious how that adds value, but it does. Everything about the stock market is ultimately about IPOs. Without active trading, of stocks after issue, no one would buy at the IPO.  The purpose of an IPO is to finance the long-term growth of a business, which is the point in the process where the value to the people gets created.  There is a group of elites that needs to be dealt with, you're correct, but I worry that your definition of this group is overly broad. Like I said, I absolutely believe and admit that there are people using ICOs as a vehicle for schemes.   That said, there are also individuals like [Brendan Eich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich) who are accomplished and trusted individuals participating in the market as well. Brendan is the creator of JavaScript and a cofounder of Mozilla. He also created the [Brave Web Broswe](https://brave.com/) and through that launched an ICO for his cryptocurrency, [Basic Attention Toke (BAT)](https://vimeo.com/209336437) whose ICO gathered [$35MM in under 30 seconds](https://www.coindesk.com/35-million-30-seconds-token-sale-internet-browser-brave-sells/). I want you to read that again: $35MM in 30 seconds given to a proven and renowned technologist who has been an important figure in shaping the web as we know it for him to cut out the middle men, banks, VCs, and everyone else and have the capital needed to focus on building and launching a new project.    Is everyone Brendan Eich? Absolutely not, but it is important that a market like this exists so that the Brendan Eich's of the world can venture down these paths to accomplish great things, even if that means suffering through scams.  Finally, on the subject of ICOs themselves: are ICOs a bubble? Maybe, but if and when it pops, it will simply clear the way for the value added projects. It is important to note that the majority of ICOs that take place are outside of the US and bar US citizens from participating. Additionally, the majority of project teams within the US that seek to issue an ICO through the proper legal channels are seeking legal counsel to help structure the deals, usually costing anywhere between $100-300K.   To answer your question regarding subs, I would suggest following:  • /r/CryptoCurrency   • /r/ethereum   • /r/btc   • /r/Bitcoin   These are good basic starting points that can help you learn abd branch out from there. Another great resource for news is [Coindesk](https://www.coindesk.com/).  Hope this helps and I am happy to discuss further if needed. With a short position you make your money (profit) when you buy the stocks back to close the position at a lower price than what you bought them at. As short selling is classed as speculation and not investing and you at no time own any actual assets, you cannot donate any short possition to charity. If you did want to avoid paying tax on the profits you could donate the proceeds of the profits after closing the position and thus get a tax deduction equal to the profits you made. But that raises a new and more important question, why are you trading in the first place if you are afraid to make profits in case you have to pay tax on those profits? Vanguard offers an index fund. Their FTSE Social Index Fund. For more information on it, go here. There are rules that prevent two of the reactive measures you suggest from occurring. First, on the date of and shortly following an IPO, there is no stock available to borrow for shorting. Second, there are no put options available for purchase. At least, none that are listed, of the sort you probably have in mind. In fact, within a day or two of the LinkedIn IPO, most (all?) of the active equity traders I know were bemoaning the fact that they couldn't yet do exactly what you described i.e. buying puts, or finding shares to sell short. There was a great deal of conviction that LinkedIn shares were overpriced, but scant means available to translate that market assessment into an influence of market value. This does not mean that the Efficient Markets Hypothesis is deficient. Equilibrium is reached quickly enough, once the market is able to clear as usual. "http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/goldman0424.pdf ""At the heart of Goldman Sachs‘ sales and trading business is our role as a ―market maker.‖  As a  market maker, the firm stands ready, willing and able to buy and sell financial instruments at the  initiation of our clients.  Goldman Sachs‘ clients expect the firm to do so, regardless of whether  the other side of a transaction has been identified or is readily available. """ Patrick Byrne (CEO of Overstock.com) ran a somewhat interesting website awhile back called 'Deep Capture' which focused heavily on naked short selling and bear raids. He was called all sorts of names and many 'serious' journalist types brushed his allegations off.   His basic argument was that a cabal of hedge funds would simultaneously naked short a specific equity and then a coordinated group of journalists and message board jockeys would disparage the company as loudly and publicly as possible, driving the price down. Naked shorting is supposed to be illegal since you can hold the types of positions like in the linked article about Citigroup where the number of shares sold short actually exceeds the number of shares in existence.  The group he named was essentially a who's who of hedge funds and fraudsters and included many names of prominent politically active 'reformed' criminals from the S&amp;L days on Wall St. I can't remember how the cards fell, but the scheme allegedly involved Michael Milliken, Sam Antar (from Crazy Eddie's Fraud), Gary Weiss, Jim Cramer, etc etc.   It was a fascinating story.   Byrne actually followed through with several lawsuits (one of which was settled after a Rocker Partners paid Byrne $5 million dollars to settle).   The 'Deep Capture' site is down, but I [found a decent article](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01/wikipedia_and_naked_shorting/print.html) that sums up some of the shenanigans, including a journalist sock-puppeting to edit Wikipedia, repeatedly denying it, being IP-traced to inside the DTCC building (the Wall St. entity responsible for clearing trades, including naked shorts). I just finished a high frequency trading project. Individuals can do it, but you need a lot of capital. You can get a managed server in Times Square for $1500/month, giving you access to 90% of the US exchanges that matter, their data farms are within 3 milliseconds of distance (latency). You can also get more servers in the same building as the exchanges, if you know where to look ;) thats all I can divulge good luck "Look at the Calvert Funds. They have a variety of ""socially responsible"" funds with published selection standards. Beware of mixing personal politics with business." Which is what [flash trading](http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0809/flash-trading-wall-streets-latest-scam.aspx) is for.   edit: I promise you, you could. You would just need a faster line. I promise that's why the NYSE banned it. However, that still doesn't mitigate the problem of creating your own exchange. We have custom software written in mostly C# for the long term strategies. Day trading is done on multiple platforms. Currently using ToS scripts for some futures and equities strategies to great success, and sierra charts for a few futures exclusively. I just moved into a position to work with day trading so I'm still learning more about the systems he uses "I personally think that this is how IPOs are going to work going forward. Company ownership trading will happen behind closed doors, then the hype is built in the limelight way above expectations, then the over valued IPO will drop allowing the backroom deal makers to cash out of the company,   The problem isn't social networking, it is ""the next big thing"" mindset of Wall Street"