Trading at the Speed of Light - How Speed has Transformed Financial Markets with Donald MacKenzie

We are very privileged to welcome Donald MacKenzie onto the podcast this week to talk about his new book "Trading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms are Transforming Financial Markets" releasing on the 25th of May. In today’s financial markets, trading floors on which brokers buy and sell shares face-to-face have increasingly been replaced by lightning-fast electronic systems that use algorithms to execute astounding volumes of transactions. Trading at the Speed of Light tells the story of this epic transformation. Donald MacKenzie shows how in the 1990s, in what were then the disreputable margins of the US financial system, a new approach to trading—automated high-frequency trading or HFT—began and then spread throughout the world. HFT has brought new efficiency to global trading, but has also created an unrelenting race for speed, leading to a systematic, subterranean battle among HFT algorithms.Donald is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh specialising in the study of Science and Technology. Donald's research aims to throw new light on the role Science and Technology has in shaping the modern world. He has worked on topics such as how financial-market participants use mathematical models, how nuclear weapons systems are designed, and how those involved try to produce high-confidence knowledge of the safety and security of computer systems.  If you would like to purchase I have put some links below - https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691211381/trading-at-the-speed-of-lighthttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08NY31P1Z/https://uk.bookshop.org/books/trading-at-the-speed-of-light-how-ultrafast-algorithms-are-transforming-financial-markets/9780691211381WTFinanceInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfnTikTok - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeUjj9xV/Bitclout - https://bitclout.com/u/WTFinance