Oh. My. God.

[andrewducker]

If I read this right then Goldman-Sachs have been packet sniffing at the New York Stock Exchange, picking up the trading information before it's made, and then basing their own trades on the direction the market is _about_ to move.

If this turns out to be true then they are in so much trouble it's not true. Company-destroying amounts of trouble.

Can anyone clear up the detail of this for me?

Comments

[meihua.livejournal.com]

... This has got to be a misunderstanding. Surely. This is just too big to be real. I'll watch with interest, will you be posting updates?

[meihua.livejournal.com]

Reposted for signal-boosting. :)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I hope they're in trouble, but wouldn't bank (ahem) on it. The last year or so has shown how complete and total regulatory capture is in this sector, both over there and over here. The technical detail on this one has enough smoke and mirrors to provide cover.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Sounds plausible, but I'm waiting for confirmation from a credible source.

[andrewducker]

Just got an email from a friend who knows a Goldman Sachs programmer, basically saying that they had been involved in that project at an early stage, basically looking directly at the commands as they streamed past. They (the coder) didn't know that GS had access other people didn't have - and had dismissed it thinking that if it was feasible then everyone would be doing it.

Which isn't entirely credible - as it's a friend of a friend who is remaining anonymous - but it is something.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Of what little I could read, I'm making the same assumption you are about it. Whoa.