[Zhang Fei]

[Algorithmic trading, which is done by computers, can buy and sell stocks in huge quantities in microseconds. This is where the concept of flash crashes comes from. These aren’t done by humans, but by computer algorithms that have been programed to watch news sources for key indicators and then act on them. Believe it or not, those microsecond buy and sell orders are very profitable for the owners of the algos (banks) and the idea of charging a tax is to stop this from happening.]

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This is like Mad Magazine’s Spy vs Spy - multiple groups of short-term traders trying to take each other’s lunch money. I’m a buy-and-hold guy. These people provide liquidity for me. I used to have to deal with spreads of 25 cents, all the way up to $1 for certain illiquid stocks. Today, my spreads are typically under 10 cents, and typically 1 cent or 2. I like these flash traders.

The flash crashes don’t bother me. Eventually, value seeks its true level, determined by company revenues, profit margins, balance sheets and returns on equity.

[cgbg]

Eventually, value seeks its true level

The Fed can prop up stock values for a long long time.

The crash will come _eventually_, and when it does it will be epic.

What that means in the real world is that today's stock market is a casino.

I prefer casinos--at least I know what the odds are...even if they are against me.