????這一切是如何影響普通美國401(k)養(yǎng)老金計(jì)劃投資者的,？高頻交易員每秒能做成千上萬份交易,。他們不斷搜羅著那些小小的機(jī)會。讓我們舉例子說明,。假設(shè)你的富達(dá)基金經(jīng)理要買入50,000股?？松‥xxon），股價(jià)75.20美元,。他不會一下子就完成整個(gè)交易,，而是1,000股、1,000股地分批吃進(jìn),。

????他以75.20美元購買了1,000股后,，高頻算法察覺到某個(gè)大型投資者正在買入?？松?。因此，他們也開始買入?？松?，并把價(jià)格推到75.22美元甚至更高。那位富達(dá)的經(jīng)理然后以75.25美元購入了另一批,。高頻交易員再次跟進(jìn),，把價(jià)格拉高至75.30美元。當(dāng)富達(dá)經(jīng)理買入最后1,000股時(shí),，?？松岩宦窛q到75.50美元。這意味著該經(jīng)理的最后一次購買損失了250美元,，因?yàn)樗馁I入價(jià)已不是75.25美元,，而是75.50美元。而那250美元原本應(yīng)成為你的投資,，40年后的保守回報(bào)有望達(dá)到2,500美元,。

????帕特森沒有大談特談這種高頻交易，而是引人入勝地?cái)⑹隽诉@個(gè)新世界的瘋狂增長及其危險(xiǎn)后果,。他遵照邁克爾?劉易斯公式,，找到了那些鮮為人知的英雄，并解釋了那些復(fù)雜的金融策略,。其中一個(gè)就是萊文,，從根本上說，這位溫和的程序員發(fā)明了現(xiàn)代電子股票交易市場,，他的工作地點(diǎn)是一間位于曼哈頓南區(qū)寬街（Broad Street）的辦公室,，里面到處是垃圾，還有幾只寵物龜在游泳池里游泳,，角落里矗立著以色列反坦克火箭筒,。

????萊文在20世紀(jì)90年代,，開創(chuàng)了稱做“島”（Island）的電子交易平臺，以對抗他在紐約證券交易所和納斯達(dá)克看到的不公平壟斷,，那是做市商在進(jìn)行股票交易的地方,。其中的問題是，中間商會勾結(jié)起來,，牟取每筆交易中的巨大利差,。

????具有諷刺意味的是，帕特森發(fā)現(xiàn)：為了建立沒有中間商的電子交換,，萊文需要高頻交易員來為買家和賣家提供的流動性,。最終，其他電子交易平臺,，也就是所謂的池,，開始形成。結(jié)果,，高頻交易員成為了新的中間商,，為池提供了生存所需的交易量。

????舉個(gè)例子：有一天,，位于芝加哥的高平交易公司,、同時(shí)也是做市商Getco正在舉行晨會。紐約股市開盤后五分鐘,，一個(gè)抓狂的電子池職員打來電話,，質(zhì)問為什么Getco還不進(jìn)行交易。

????這種新興的電子股票從內(nèi)部蠶食著納斯達(dá)克和紐約證券交易所,。在過去的好日子里,，紐約證券交易所把持著美國股市90%的交易。而今天,，它處理的量只有四分之一,。

????接下來會發(fā)生什么？帕特森唯一可以確定的是,，高頻趨勢將會繼續(xù)下去,。他寫道，一家名為Spread Networks的公司在芝加哥和紐約的交易中心之間建立起超高速連接,，這個(gè)價(jià)值3億美元的項(xiàng)目會將光纜直接鋪到新澤西州的納斯達(dá)克數(shù)據(jù)中心,。其結(jié)果會如何呢？每輪交易的時(shí)間將減少3毫秒（千分之三秒）,。

????How does all this impact everyday 401(k) investors? High-frequency traders place hundreds of thousands of orders each second. They are constantly on the prowl for small opportunities. So let's say your mutual fund manager at Fidelity is buying 50,000 shares of Exxon (XOM). We'll assume that the stock trades for $75.20. He won't place the whole order at once, instead buying piecemeal in 1,000-share blocks.

????After he buys 1,000 shares at $75.20, the high-frequency algorithms sense that some big investor is buying Exxon. So they also start buying Exxon, pushing the price up to $75.22 and higher. The Fidelity manager then buys another block of shares at $75.25. The high-frequency traders swoop in again and push the price up to $75.30. By the time the Fidelity manager buys his last batch of 1,000 shares, Exxon is all the way up to $75.50. That means the manager lost $250 on the last block by buying Exxon at $75.50 instead of $75.25. That $250 should have been invested for you and, estimating a conservative return over 40 years, grown to $2,500.

????Patterson skips across the high-frequency landscape in an engaging narrative that tracks this new world's blinding growth and its perilous consequences. He follows the Michael Lewis formula of finding little-known heroes to explain complex financial maneuvers. One is Levine, a meek programmer who basically invented modern day electronic stock markets from an office on Broad Street in Lower Manhattan stuffed with trash and pet turtles swimming in a pool, not to mention an Israeli bazooka standing in the corner.

????In the 1990s, Levine started an electronic exchange called Island to fight what he saw as unfair monopolies in the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, which used market makers to execute stock orders. Problem was, the middlemen colluded to skim huge spreads off of each order.

????Patterson quickly gets to the irony: In order to build an electronic exchange without middlemen, Levine needed high-frequency traders to provide liquidity for buyers and sellers. Eventually other electronic exchanges -- called pools -- started forming. High-frequency traders became the new middlemen, providing the trading volumes the pools needed to survive.

????Case in point: One day a morning meeting went long at Getco, a high-frequency trading firm in Chicago. Five minutes after the start of trading in New York, a frantic Island official called asking why Getco wasn't trading yet.

????This new world of electronic pools of stocks eviscerated demand at the Nasdaq and the venerable New York Stock Exchange. In its halcyon days, NYSE hosted 90% of U.S. stock trading. Today, it handles a quarter.

????What's next? Patterson is only sure that the high-frequency trend will continue. He writes about a company called Spread Networks building a super-fast connection between the trading hubs in Chicago and New York, a $300 million project to lay fiber optic cable straight into a Nasdaq data center in New Jersey. The upshot? Cutting 3 milliseconds (three one thousandths of a second) off of the round trip of a trade.