Computerized Stock Trading: Most of those trades aren't coming from trigger-happy day traders and mutual fund managers with billions of dollars at their disposal. It's a flood of machine-gun speed fury coming from an army of computers programmed to obey complicated algorithms that are hyperactively buying and selling.
In other words, the original idea of a stock being a share or investment in a company, i.e. Aunt Mary saving for her retirement or Dr. Tan building a nest egg, has been ditched in favor of a Second Life style virtual game. Producing a product or service doesn't seem to have much to do with anything. All well and good as far as it goes, but add to this lark a Government entity (the Fed) that pegs the value of virtual money to real money, i.e. markers exchangeable for real goods or services , at a strict one to one. An electronic hick-up awards a million e-dollars to Princling, Princling and Lickdicker, the Fed dutifully prints up the cash, and the market readjusts the value of your stash to keep everything on an even keel. Boy howdy, you're in the game without having to lift a finger. Mention the idea of a market determined exchange rate from virtual to real and you too can learn the definition of constructional dyspraxia. (but it sez I produced the equivalent of 60,279 bushels of wheat by clicking this here button. It's right on the screen...) At your next dinner party, try serving a picture of the meal to get a sense of where the problem lies.
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