kitkat2500's review
4.0
A very interesting story featuring good guys, bad guys, stock markets, technology geeks, and human behavior. Very readable, especially if you have a remote interest in markets. Interestingly and encouragingly, RBC is portrayed as behaving very well: ethical and nice, what a combination!
salmonread's review against another edition
Book Riot 2019 Read Harder Challenge #19: A book of nonviolent true crime
mschlat's review
4.0
Of Lewis's financial works, I liked this much more than Boomerang, but it wasn't up to the greatness of the The Big Short. The story focuses on the fight against the predation of high frequency trading --- the practice of millisecond reactions to trade information to make profits almost totally without risk. The evil of the practice (as depicted by Lewis) is that investors can no longer see where and how their trades are being made and may miss that they are actually paying more than they intended (since high frequency traders interrupt their transactions). Or it's something like that. As usual with Lewis, I get the gist and about 70% of the details and wish I had a primer for the other 30%.
A great read on the gulf between the tech folks (who program the Wall Street computers) and the traders and salespeople who carry out the finances. Lewis hits heavily the point that the technology that was meant to simplify stock trading has also introduced opportunities for profit (and stock manipulation) that no one foresaw.
A great read on the gulf between the tech folks (who program the Wall Street computers) and the traders and salespeople who carry out the finances. Lewis hits heavily the point that the technology that was meant to simplify stock trading has also introduced opportunities for profit (and stock manipulation) that no one foresaw.
divyasudhakar's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating read that drove me to create an absolute personal rule for myself that I will never work in Wall Street, Flash Boys was engaging despite it's high technical content. Some parts of said technical content grated me, particularly a small section that explained the relation between algorithms (or algo as Lewis liked to call it) and routers, which was just plain wrong (or at best technically wrong). Also I felt Lewis had taken to relying on repetition to make sure his readers understood what he was talking about. The predatory arbitrages he described were repeated a dozen or so times with no new information added. I was also a little wary of the good vs evil heavy handed treatment his characters received. The only grey characters I could see were the engineers working on and for HFT who didn't really understand the larger picture of what they were building and makes one wonder if they would continue doing it if they knew. And who the onus should be on to figure out if we were all small cogs in a very evil wheel.
I don't just have only criticism for this book though. Michael Lewis is a very readable author and seems to be especially adept at breaking down complex systems to make them fascinating to the most common person. I finished Flash Boys over a flu-ridden weekend and it moved incredibly fast. And now I am paranoid about the stock market and worried that all the folks living in their bunkers with their money in their pillow covers have a point.
I don't just have only criticism for this book though. Michael Lewis is a very readable author and seems to be especially adept at breaking down complex systems to make them fascinating to the most common person. I finished Flash Boys over a flu-ridden weekend and it moved incredibly fast. And now I am paranoid about the stock market and worried that all the folks living in their bunkers with their money in their pillow covers have a point.
eldiente's review
5.0
Michael Lewis is one of my favorite authors and I appreciate his particular experience and attention to financial details. This book reinforces my notion that the only way for "ordinary" investors to have any hope of a fair shake is buying and holding index mutual funds for a long time. High Frequency Trading is evil and most of the large brokerage banks have a determined interest that is not align with the ordinary human investor.
sandyjhutti's review against another edition
3.0
We're in trouble!
Also, sparked an interest in Bitcoin.
Also, sparked an interest in Bitcoin.
realz's review against another edition
5.0
The book provides an in-depth yet interesting view into the world of high frequency trading. At times, it sounded a bit closeted sexist and racist.
teriboop's review against another edition
4.0
Flash Boys is a look at the inside of the High Frequency Trading of the US stock market/financial world. A small group of young Wall Street guys came together to change the way HFT is done, seeing that some banks had an edge in trading that seemed inconsistent and possibly rigged. Michael Lewis chronicles the business lives of these "Flash Boys", men like Brad Katsuyama and Sergey Aleynikov who exposed the issue of HFT rigged trades and created their own exchange to even the playing field.
I work in the financial sector but not in the direct area of trading. Dealing with the technical side of things I understood, to a point, the "need for speed" in trading but not to the extent that the book exposed. I see things much differently now. A very interesting and eye-opening look into the stock market.
I work in the financial sector but not in the direct area of trading. Dealing with the technical side of things I understood, to a point, the "need for speed" in trading but not to the extent that the book exposed. I see things much differently now. A very interesting and eye-opening look into the stock market.
flowerrunner's review against another edition
4.0
Michael Lewis has a real talent to make stories about the financial world engaging. I think it has to do with zooming in on quasi-fraudulent activity and describing the lives of the good guys who try to change things to add fairness.
This was a little hard to understand in parts. I was able to understand the front running, and I somewhat understood the kickbacks and fees (I think). I didn't really get the dark pool concept in its full meaning. There were some parts where I should have been rewinding the audiobook but chose to continue. My fault.
I had a harder time staying engaged when it came to the IEX exchange in the second half of the book.
I think it's an awesome book, and I'd recommend it. I'm not in finance, and it was very interesting.
This was a little hard to understand in parts. I was able to understand the front running, and I somewhat understood the kickbacks and fees (I think). I didn't really get the dark pool concept in its full meaning. There were some parts where I should have been rewinding the audiobook but chose to continue. My fault.
I had a harder time staying engaged when it came to the IEX exchange in the second half of the book.
I think it's an awesome book, and I'd recommend it. I'm not in finance, and it was very interesting.