What I think is that things are not as hard for automated traders as they are painted in this quote. At least not yet at this moment. Yes, there's people smarter and faster than us out there (certainly much smarter than me, since I am not even a programmer). But we are not competing just against those people smarter than us. The market prices are driven by the herds of not-so-smart people, so the edge is readily available. It's not going to be an edge that gives us an 80% of wins, but only a 60% of wins, but it's still an edge. We don't have to beat the smartest people, we can make money even if we are not as good as them, because - I don't know how long it will last - right now prices are still being driven by herds of not-so-smart people. In other words, markets don't seem to have changed over the years. (I am not talking about high-frequency trading, because I know nothing about that, and in that arena the case might be entirely different from what I read).