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mcbibliotecaria's review against another edition
5.0
You know when you hit a book funk where one bad books keeps you from reading others for a while, happened with my last one Pride and Prejudice rewritten supposedly to reflect modern times. Awful it was. So finally I was able to get back in the groove with this delightful, yep, short book on the details behind a very difficult to understand sector of the financial world, High Frequency Traders. I learned all about dark pools, how traders are incorporating themselves as weird middlemen who take even more money from their customers, and their customers don't even know it. And how one company out there is actually trying to lift the veil from these dark pools and trade honestly. I don't even get it, I don't get greed. Because IEX, the "Savior" in this book trading honestly, there still making billions of dollars, but developing all these back channels by monetizing milliseconds had made these too big to fail giants even richer. I don't get it! You can't take it with you! You can't buy extra time in this life with money, so why do you need more? Anyways, great book.
nancyromancey's review against another edition
5.0
This is probably the best Michael Lewis book I have read (maybe tied with The Big Short). Lewis (as always) does a great job of explaining Wall Street in an easy to read format.
krichardson's review against another edition
4.0
An incredibly interesting look into high frequency trading and some of the people trying to make the market fair again. Feels a little incomplete, although that might just be the natural consequence of 9 years passing.
quenchgum's review against another edition
5.0
Michael Lewis totally shits on the (strategic, brilliant, fast-acting, creative, and capitalist) HFT traders that he probably knew he could have alternatively chosen to glorify if this book were written from another perspective. But for the sake of narrative, he sort of had to pick a side, and the side of the little guy -- of the rise of the IEX, and the downfall of traditional dark pools and HFT firms with them, and transparency in Wall Street brokerage -- has got to be tough to beat, you know, figures-wise. Morals, and all that. The people love it.
Anyway, I loved this book regardless of any one-sidedness it probably needed to have. It's always fun to watch Michael Lewis do what he does. Not for the saucy expose, or for personal trading or investment skills, or for any justice he reclaims. It's just that this side of finance is difficult to explain (and is rarely explained), it's quickly developing, and the stakes are huge; Lewis always gives you well-written exposure to totally badass, brilliant new finance stuff and for that he's got me all in.
Anyway, I loved this book regardless of any one-sidedness it probably needed to have. It's always fun to watch Michael Lewis do what he does. Not for the saucy expose, or for personal trading or investment skills, or for any justice he reclaims. It's just that this side of finance is difficult to explain (and is rarely explained), it's quickly developing, and the stakes are huge; Lewis always gives you well-written exposure to totally badass, brilliant new finance stuff and for that he's got me all in.
literary_journalism's review against another edition
4.5
How can a book about high frequency trading be a bonafide page turner??
meadowlarked's review against another edition
4.0
This book was pretty good — Michael Lewis doesn’t usually disappoint. It definitely started dragging a bit in the back half but it was still a pretty interesting look into the depths of Wall Street and the overall financial system.
mjmarx59's review against another edition
5.0
This is my first Michael Lewis book and I highly doubt it will be my last. He does a great job of explaining high concept finance ideas and creating an interesting narrative. This is about as good a book about Wall Street could get.