Re:Average stock ownership: 22 seconds
by dangrossman on Sunday January 09, 2011 @02:59AM
(#2085118)
I understand when people copy the content of some blog post the author submitted to HN while a server is too overloaded to read it at the source.
I don't understand you copying the full text of an MSN news article because you don't like the advertising. Please respect copyright a little bit. If you don't respect copyright, at least respect Paul and don't create reasons for lawyers to send him DMCA infringement notices.
So it's ok to copy blog posts because a server is overloaded but not ok to copy a 5 line article from MSN half of those five lines were copied by MSN from wired, two more were from an interview elsewhere (http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&#... warning, also auto plays some ad, sorry) and whose sole original contribution seems to be to deliver some auto-play ad?
That's inconsistent.
The wired article is here: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_ai_flashtrading/
I really wonder which one of the two remaining lines you think the DMCA infringement notices will be about.
To answer the question: the individual investor hires someone with a computer to do it for him. i.e. you put your money in a mutual or hedge fund.
Yes, they have tremendous fees, but if the gains are there...
Of course that shifts the questions to picking a good fund, but that's at least something you can do.
In fact, don't bother clicking here is the whole text of the 'article':
"What, you bought a stock one whole hour ago? And you still own it? That stock is practically a dinosaur in Wall Street's new reality.
The average time a stock is held is 22 seconds. But that's an improvement from a year ago, when it was 20 seconds, according to analyst Michael Hudson, an economics professor at the University of Missouri.
It's all because of computerized split-second trading. "The financial sector is short term," Hudson said in an interview. "They talk as if they're long term."
Wired has an excellent overview of how computerized trading has taken over Wall Street. It's so bad now, in fact, that computers now read news articles at lightning speed, searching for key words that will help them buy stocks. "The machines aren't there just to crunch numbers anymore; they're now making the decisions," Wired reports. Computerized high-frequency trading makes up about 70% of all trades, experts say.
How can the individual investor compete with that?