Investment Firms Grab Stock Data First, and Use It Seconds Before Others

The debate between legal and ethical, often hidden by legal jargon and semantics, is generally viewed as “unfair” by the public. As long as debates such as this one rages within public view, the end result will be deterioration of confidence in a system increasing viewed as a rigged game.

Here lies another example of how the pendulum of influence swings from the public to private sector within an important long-term cycle.

"It is a rigged game," Sal Arnuk, co-founder of brokerage firm Themis Trading, said Wednesday at a Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C., referring to the trading activity, which some call "latency arbitrage."

While legal, the practice pushes the envelope of what is fair, critics say, and raises questions about the advantages some fast-moving traders are gaining in the market.

Source: finance.yahoo.com