Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt book cover

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

Paperback – March 23, 2015

by
Price
$11.99
Format
Paperback
Pages
320
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0393351590
Dimensions
5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
Weight
8.8 ounces

Description

"Lewis, as always, is exceedingly good at describing the complexities and absurdities of the subculture he portrays here… A deeply entertaining book, and one that illuminates how much our world has changed in less than a decade." ― Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times "Important to public debate about Wall Street… in exposing what one of his central characters calls the ‘Pandora’s box of ridiculousness’ that financial exchanges have become." ― Philip Delves Broughton, Wall Street Journal "Reads like a thriller . . . Lewis is the kind of writer who creates his own weather system." ― John Lanchester, London Review of Books "Remarkable… Michael Lewis has a spellbinding talent for finding emotional dramas in complex, highly technical subjects." ― Financial Times "Michael Lewis does it again . . . fascinating." ― Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post "A beautiful narrative, so well-written. You’ve got to get this." ― Jon Stewart, The Daily Show "If you read one business book this year, make it Flash Boys ." ― David Sirota, Salon "Michael Lewis is a genius, and his book will give high-frequency trading a much-needed turn under the microscope." ― Kevin Roose, New York Magazine "Michael Lewis knows how to tell a story." ― Vanity Fair "A fast-paced tale backed by gutsy reporting." ― Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly "Who knew high-frequency trading was such a sexy subject?" ― Bloomberg Business Week "Score one for the humans! Critics of high speed, computer-driven trading have a new champion." ― CNN Money " Flash Boys richly deserves to be the first chapter in a new discussion of market rules and abuses… Lewis raises troubling and necessary questions." ― The American Conservative "Michael Lewis is one of the premier chroniclers of our age." ― Huffington Post "When it comes to narrative skill, a reporter’s curiosity and an uncanny instinct for the pulse of the zeitgeist, Lewis is a triple threat." ― James B. Stewart, New York Times "[Lewis] is a top-flight storyteller." ― Lev Grossman, Time "A tour de force that will grab and hold your attention like the best of thrillers." ― Jon Talton, Seattle Times "Lewis writes about the resilience of underdogs, even in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. He’s doing essential work, and anything that embarrasses fat cats and encourages reform is a flash in the right direction." ― Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press "Lewis simply tells the truth." ― Will Deener, Dallas News "Michael Lewis has another hit on his hands." ― Zachary Warmbrodt and Dave Clarke, Politico "[Lewis’s] ability to find compelling characters and tell a great story through their eyes is unparalleled. He can untangle complex subjects like few others. His prose sparkles." ― Joe Nocera, New York Times "As always, Lewis simplifies the complex―and makes it fascinating." ― People "Recommended… Entertaining." ― San Francisco Chronicle "Entirely engaging… Illuminates a part of Wall Street that has generally done business in the shadows." ― New York Review of Books Michael Lewis is the best-selling author of Liar’s Poker , Moneyball , The Blind Side , The Big Short , The Undoing Project , and The Fifth Risk . He lives in Berkeley, California, with his family.

Features & Highlights

  • #1
  • New York Times
  • Bestseller ― With a new Afterword
  • "Guaranteed to make blood boil." ―Janet Maslin,
  • New York Times
  • In Michael Lewis's game-changing bestseller, a small group of Wall Street iconoclasts realize that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders. They band together―some of them walking away from seven-figure salaries―to investigate, expose, and reform the insidious new ways that Wall Street generates profits. If you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(10.7K)
★★★★
25%
(4.4K)
★★★
15%
(2.7K)
★★
7%
(1.2K)
★
-7%
(-1245)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Read at your own risk. Will change your worldview of investment.

I just finished reading Flash Boys.

Then I turned around and gave it to my husband to read. He loves great books and this
is one.

Anyone who has any investment, large or small, will want to read this book.

I have read most of Lewis's other books. This is his best.

It reads like a novel, really a thriller. So faced paced that I couldn't put it down.

Who would have thought that a tale involving the intricacies of Wall St. chicanery could be so fascinating.

But apparently this is the special talent of Lewis. He can make just about anything irresistible.

Really, it's the characters.

The people in this book are real. Just people who, in no apparently connected way, rose from wherever they
found themselves, to take on some of the most powerful interests in the world, Wall St.

After you read the book go online and watch the 60 Minute interview.

Then watch the infamous CNBC interview with Lewis, the author, Brad Katsuyama, the major protagonist of the book, and the big, bad boss of BAT, a notorious high frequency trader, which is pilloried in the book. It is the most watched CNBC episode in their history. After you read the book it will take on a life that is shocking.

Nice to know that the BAT guy was fired after the show.

But unfortunately, BAT still lives on as one of the villains.

Great book.

Read it.

I am salivating waiting for his next book.
8 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

HFT is an interesting topic and Michael Lewis does a great job of pointing out the flaws!

This book was a good read that did a great job of explaining the world of high frequency trading and where it goes wrong. So many big names have come out hoping to eliminate the practice, we can only hope it gains traction.

The reason this book got 4 stars vs 5 is while the story telling is great and Lewis' writing style is great at simplifying complex topics, I wish we'd seen a bit better ending. I felt there could have been a wider implication drawn at the end and give us a bigger view of what IEX could do to change the other exchanges. This narrow focus makes a good story but doesn't give us a great picture of the current position within the landscape.

Also, the intense focus can lead to it almost feeling as an advertisement for the groups in focus.
5 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

All you need is speed

Michael Lewis is one of the best writers about financial activities and the occasional skulduggery that accompanies them. His Liar’s Poker and The Big Short are essential reading for anyone looking to learn more about the bond and stock markets.
In Flash Boys, Lewis tells us about high frequency traders (HFT) who play the Wall Street stock trading game with speed, speed and more speed. Technology plays a huge role in their success and it includes such things as locating their computer close to a stock exchange computer, using STRAIGHT fiberoptic cables for maximum speed, and clever algorithms, all with the sole purpose of getting ahead of the ordinary investor. (A bend in a fiberoptic cable slows down the signal.) Individual stock trade profits may be only in the pennies but the sheer volume of trades soon amounts to big money. At the end of each trading day, the HFTs hold no stocks but only their profits. Lewis notes that companies engaged in HFT have had profitable results every year for the last four years.
Knowing the the odds of success are stacked against an investor in a rigged market, a group of Wall Street “mavericks” banded together and established a new stock exchange called IEX, short for Investor’s Exchange. The software running the exchange was designed explicitly to thwart the HFTs and treat every investor fairly. The IEX has been a commercial success for its founders as well as the investors whose trades are handled by that exchange.
Stock traders on Wall Street and elsewhere have their own language but Michael Lewis is intimately familiar with the subject and writes about it with clarity and insight. If you have any money in the stock market, this is a book you should read.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

... long suspected that program trading was not in the best interest of small investors or the economy

I have long suspected that program trading was not in the best interest of small investors or the economy, but this book spells out why, chapter and verse.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Brilliant and Clear Expose of Wall Street Fraud

Lewis is able to relate the extremely complex machinations of Wall Street traders in a simple, understanding, and compelling way, It becomes clear that Wall Street simply does not appreciate the fiduciary relationship between broker and customer. Traders with the advantage of a slight edge in computer speed, and able to preprogram high speed arbitrage trading amongst various exchanges, intercept the customer's trade and essentially sell the stock back to him for a higher price. Instead of protecting their customer, the brokers and big banks cut deals with the high frequency arbitragers to sell their customers down the river.

There is a hero to the story: one bank employee sets out to form his own exchange that prevents this fraud. That he succeeds provides some comfort. But the ability of Wall Street to rationalize what is, at bottom, criminal fraud is chilling.

Lewis is a brilliant journalist, and this is one of his best works.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Nanoseconds Matter

Again, Lewis doesn't disappoint. He takes a complicated subject and makes it easy for the reader to understand. In Flash Boys, Lewis focuses on the high-frequency trading industry that has developed in the last eight years and the market (if not unfair) edge that nanoseconds can provide a trader (read machines, not people). He specifically tells the story of one Brad Katsuyama, who left RBC to eventually form Investors' Exchange, or IEX. The point of IEX is to provide investors, which are not necessarily individual day traders, but also include large mutual funds and public and corporate pension funds, a fair shot at trading on a stock market that is not "rigged," where HFT firms know what the order is before it can be filled and literally jump to another exchange to front run the trade. Like with so many industries, financial services is becoming more and more dominated by high technology, making the traditional human capital obsolete and creating wealth and power for the coders, developers, techies and geeks like never before. This is a fascinating story within an ever-evolving industry. Case in point - this book will be meaningless in ten years, just like ten years ago, high-frequency trading on the scale we see it today didn't exist.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Interesting Read for the Retail Investor

You'll need to read the first 25-30 pages before the confusion lifts and the story begins to drive forward. Be prepared for a heavy dose of tech-talk and a bit of basic physics (yes, light speed is 186,000 mph and a millisecond is about the speed of HFT). Nothing new in the existence of "dark pools," which have been with us for some time. Basically HFT is a new kind of "front running" in which speed matters, but this is hardly a revelation. I'd recommend this book for those with a layman's dose of upfront Wall Street savvy. Will HFT make or break the average retail investor? Not likely. Your 401-K isn't going to crash because of optical cable installations.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

(4.5 stars) read this book, understand the main themes, enjoy and admire the personalities, but do not try to dig too deep.

In an interview Lewis stated he had not wanted to write another book related to Wall Street, but Brad Katsuyama’s story was just too compelling to pass up. “Flash Boys” is an important, eye opening, fascinating book, but at the same time it can be frustrating; while personalities are fleshed out nicely, there is often not enough detail for the reader to really understand just what is going on. For example, when an HFT (high frequency trader) puts out an order to buy to gather information which he can then use to front run, just what information does he get: does he know the size of the total amount the seller wants to dispose of and who the seller is? if not, how does he make inferences? Another, more minor frustration with the book is the lack of an index.

While much attention has been paid to the abolition of Glass-Steagal as the cause of the financial crisis, “Flash Boys” points to 2 “improvements” which have cost investors billions per year: permitting all the exchange competitors to the NY and NASDAQ exchanges; requiring brokers seek lowest price for each share without regard to how that impacts total price received for an entire order. These improvements as an unintended consequence have permitted the front running by the HFT and contributed to market instability.

As a small investor, I would like to relate a relevant experience. For years I had noticed losing trades when I would bid say $20.50 for an illiquid stock and eventually shares were bought at $20.5001 by someone else. Every so often I would ask the broker how this could happen if you had to place trades in penny increments. Only this year did I get an answer rather than an obviously false rationalization: some traders are not bound by the penny rule.

To sum up: read this book, understand the main themes, enjoy and admire the personalities, but do not try to dig too deep. Wonder with me why more is not being done by the SEC, but be thankful for Brad and his cohorts, and the founding of the IEX stock exchange.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Very few books leave me searching for a better superlative.

Very important and very entertaining. Few books can do both.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Finally we have evidence that the market is rigged...

Michael Lewis clearly and convincingly lays out the case that the stock market is rigged. Now that stock markets are essentially controlled by computers that match buyers with sellers, high-frequency traders have crept into the picture to siphon off billions from pension funds and other institutional investors. These traders invest a small fortune in trying to shave mere milliseconds off the timing of their trades so they can front-run the buy and sell orders of legitimate investors, a practice which is not only condoned but encouraged by the ever-increasing number of stock exchanges which sell space closer and closer to their "black box" (a practice called co-location) so the high-frequency traders can fight to be the fastest on the market. Of course, this devious behavior wouldn't be possible without the complicity of the big Wall Street banks, who sell out their own clients by allowing them access to their dark pools for a fee.

All of this and more is weaved into an exciting narrative that follows a former member of the Royal Bank of Canada as he attempts to change the system by creating a new stock exchange that is not rigged in favor of high-frequency traders. This book is definitely a page-turner, although those with no background in business or finance might occasionally find themselves googling certain terms. Nevertheless, this is a riveting and much-needed analysis of a serious problem in the U.S. financial markets.
2 people found this helpful

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