On Tomorrow's Secret Meeting To Plot The End Of High Frequency Trading

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/tomorrows-secret-meeting-eliminate-high-frequency-trading

What Tyler failed to mention is those math geeks are hired by corporate companies like Goldman and friends.
Once again caught reaping the riches of the wronged.


The SEC's "definitive"(ly worthless) report on what happened on May 6th was a dud, and was nothing more than a distraction-based smear campaign against Waddell and Reed (an experiment in which we can only hope W&R participated involuntarily): a firm which did something that was completely in its right to do. But is this unexpected? After all had the SEC confirmed that it is indeed HFT who is responsible for a broken market structure, it would have effectively destroyed itself: if and when the SEC does indeed confirm that the entire market topology over the past 5 years has been hijacked by young and pustular math Ph.D.'s with fast computers, the implications to fair markets would be orders of magnitude worse than the fallout associated with the Madoff scandal, and could serve as grounds for the unwind of the SEC itself, which would have to explain why it has been avoiding calls against HFT impropriety for years. So in a sense Mary Schapiro's conclusion is nothing less than a lass desperate act of self preservation. Which however means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Tomorrow, as the WSJ reported a week ago, the Investment Company Institute, better known to Zero Hedge readers as the guys who track the now permanent weekly outflows from capital markets, is holding a secret meeting in which some of the participants "are determined to push for a plan to restrict high-frequency trading" (furthermore, the ICI was rather pissed about this particular leak, implying that things are really serious). While the SEC may have declared a market structure truce, and is peddling its usual worthless solution of circuit breakers (more on this below), actual market participants have had enough of seeing their profits plunge and HFTs extracting more capital out of the market than the much maligned ten years ago market makers and specialists ever did.

More from the WSJ on the dilemma facing

Goldman Visits the Court of Public Financing

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704866204575224630179814538.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

One would think politics at this point would be the last thing you would think about for reasons of wanting to terminate your pension fund's association with Goldman or any of the other large banks for that matter.
I can't get past the point of FRAUD myself.


In the weeks since Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was sued over alleged fraud, the firm has engaged in a charm offensive to keep customers from defecting. But it hasn't always worked.

Goldman sent out emails to clients on the day of the allegations, April 16, giving the firm's defense. Since then, Goldman executives have crossed the country to meet personally with clients. One Goldman insider said colleagues crammed roughly two months of client visits into two weeks.

Last week, the $9 billion Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System voted to put Goldman's asset-management unit "on alert" for possible termination pending a review of the allegations as "an organizational concern."

Other clients say they are concerned as well. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused the firm of failing to disclose the role of a short seller in constructing a pool of mortgage-related assets sold to investors. Goldman has denied wrongdoing, saying its disclosures were adequate. A related criminal investigation disclosed last Friday and congressional hearings on April 27 focusing on the charges have intensified scrutiny of the firm.

The action by Oklahoma, which was earlier reported by Reuters, shows how state and local governments can be sensitive to such issues for political reasons