[BikerJoe]

Would it be fairer if he stated that he had a concern that GS and the other large banks are using these programs to manipulate the market? That’s a concern I have. It’s also why my money is on the sidelines, where it will remain for the time being.

Let's get back to basics...

The purpose of the markets is to raise capital for companies.

The (original) purpose of companies like GS was to assess the short and long-term potential of companies being traded on the market and to decide for their clients if a company was "a good bet", then invest in it.

When things have finally devolved into derivatives markets with (by at least one estimate, an exposure that is four times the replacement cost of human civilization) and valuations hinging on microsecond trades, you get the feeling that prudence and "being adult" has gone out the window and that there is very little difference between Wall Street and the Vegas Strip.

[r9etb]

When things have finally devolved into derivatives markets with (by at least one estimate, an exposure that is four times the replacement cost of human civilization) and valuations hinging on microsecond trades, you get the feeling that prudence and "being adult" has gone out the window and that there is very little difference between Wall Street and the Vegas Strip.

It's that last part that has me thinking ... the automated trades are a huge (the primary?) component of the total trading volume market. The purpose of the codes described here is to make money off of small, short-term fluctuations in stock prices.

There's no explicit connection with the underlying value of the stocks being traded -- this is just a way of making money, or losing less of it, in response to momentary fluctuations.

The resultant disconnect between profits on the one hand, and sound investments on the other, is the sort of thing that creates "bubbles."