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Opinion article by Hugh Young*, Managing Director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Limited
In so-called ‘high-frequency trading’ powerful computers are programmed to crunch huge amounts of data while buying and selling securities in just one thirteen-thousandths of a second. Automated high-speed computers linked by ultra-fast connections can give some traders an edge in the financial market equivalent of a Wild West gunfight. Whoever gets off the first shot gets to execute a trade at a better price before others have time to react. While some people may regard this development as a triumph of technology over human limitations, others see yet another example of how ‘insiders’ rig financial markets for the benefit of a few.
In many ways, we live in an...
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