I was a big fan of Scott Patterson’s first book The Quants. I think it along with a couple of other books it help explain what was going on in the financial markets in the last half of the past decade. His new book Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System is also garnering a great deal of positive attention as well.
Now instead of looking at investors, Patterson is looking at the plumbing of our current trading regime. Aaron Brown, author in his own right of Red-Blooded Risk, has a rave review of Patterson’s book up at Minyanville. Brown notes how the book gives the reader a look at how equity execution has fragmented amongst a range of “liquidity” providers. Brown notes why this is important:
This book matters because trade execution is too important to the economy to be left to insiders and regulators. We need broad public education on the subject. Trading execution affects both the efficiency and fairness of capital markets, which means it affects the efficiency and fairness of the economy. But it’s a complicated issue that is ill-suited to partisan sound bites (not that there are a lot of issues well served by partisan sound bites).
Brown notes how in the wrong hands a book of this nature could be exceedingly dull. As a trader you need not know all of the details of the current market environment, but serious students should have some sense of the history of markets and how future rules changes might affect their trading. Thankfully it seems that this might be the book for us. Brown concludes by calling Patterson’s book:
This is one of those rare books that is a great summer beach read and a useful trading manual for winter study.
In short, sign us up.
Earlier coverage of Patterson’s book on Abnormal Returns:
[new] Michael Covel talks with Scott Patterson about his book Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System. (iTunes)
An excerpt from Scott Patterson’s Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System. (WSJ)
Michael Martin talks with Scott Patterson about his new book Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System. (MartinKronicle)
A positive review for Scott Patterson’s Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System. (Falkenblog)
An interview with Scott Patterson author of Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System. (The Ticker)
