Imagine you had a stop-loss order in on Accenture for $36. Average investors always put in stop-loss orders to prevent them from suffering a catastrophic loss on a stock. Regular investors, however, do not have computer algorithms that can buy in sell the same stock every millisecond.
An average investor in Accenture literally had his stock stolen from himself today. The stock dropped from from $41.09 to $.04 - triggering your stop-loss order at $.04. After all, the stock didn't take a normal drop from $41.09 to $38.52 to $36. Instead, it fell off a cliff to...
...Four cents.
One of Goldman Sachs' algorithm picked up your shares for four pennies in the second that your stop-loss order was triggered. That the stock immediately returned to it's market value means nothing. You shares are gone.
Goldman wins, you lose. I'll give you ten-to-one odds that Goldman Sachs made over $100 million today. Want to take the other side of the bet?
Goldman Sachs did not win because they are smarter than the average investor. They won because they manipulate the stock market through its high frequency trading (HFT) programs.
Look at this chart, and explain to me why Goldman Sachs traders should not be hanging from stop lights on Wall Street? People are worried about illegal immigration in Arizona when traders are robbing people in plain sight.
Goldman Sachs has already confessed its crimes to AUSA Joseph Facciponti, who said that: "The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways."
This is what a market manipulated in unfair ways looks like:
