Flash Boys (Lewis)

Discussion Questions
1. Does Michael Lewis do a good job of explaining the arcane practices of Wall Street high frequency trading? If you are not involved in the financial industry, do his explanations make sense to you.

2. Follow-up to Question 1: What are dark pools? Can you explain their role in this high stakes game?

3. Talk about the Wall Street personality "type" as experienced by Brad katsuyama, a Canadian. Do you believe it's a fair assessment...or an overly generalized one?

4. Talk about the skill set of the team that Katsuyama put together. Brad himself admits he was no computer wizard, and Ronan Ryan at one point had no idea what a millisecond was...and, when hired by Katsuyama, had no idea what he was to do. How was Katsuyama's group able to accomplish all they did?

5. What damage is caused by high-frequency trading? Or is it, perhaps, not as damaging as Lewis indicates? Defenders of the practice say it provides market liquidity and efficiency. And, mostly likely, the average investor hardly notices a few pennies here and there. What do you think? How does Lewis respond to defenders of the high-frequency trading?

6. Are there villains in this story? If so, who are they? Katsuyama doesn't want to name names. Why not? What about Goldman Sachs—what is its role?

7. What, if anything, should be done to halt the practice of high-frequency trades? Do you think anything will be done?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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