Exactly. Since futures is a zero sum game, by definition, half of the participants have to lose money so the other half can make money.
If your time frame is longer than a tick chart algo`s dont mean a thing. In fact they will create superb opportunities for human eyes at least a few times a year.
Apparently by 2010,the small traders that are around will make up 10% of the market. 4 Trading Arcades near me have closed down this year,a lot of traders I speak to won't be continuing in 2008. It's a nice thought,'just learn how to trade',wish I'd thought of that.
So what about the people who want to use futures for hedging purposes, surely they'll still be around/ After all hedging is why futures were setup in the first place not so some gameboy punk can play trader.
"Computerized trading systems will eliminate the little guy" The little guy doing what, trying to grab a tick within milliseconds? "As the market continues to become faster..." It would do me no good if I could trade 100 times faster for what I do. "Trading system vendors can only savor the burgeoning futures markets" I see now. No one can live without your product. Why did the article not provide an intra-day chart of price. What will a chart look like 2 years from now? Will a chart flat-line? Price will not move anywhere within 1,5,10,15,30,60 minutes?
The trend with computerized anything as far as i can see , is that it quickly becomes available to the masses , i bet i could buy a very complex chess playing software very cheaply , whats more these systems will also only be effective if they are kept secret ,which is tough in a large institution , especially where there is money to be made. Whats more the previous poster had a valid point , if you trade using daily data are the markets really moving any faster , a day is still a day . I'm not saying things won't change , but just because an opinionated pratt says it will be like this , don't make it so!! My prediction is the shrewdest will make the money and the not so shrewd will lose , this is obviously a brand new concept the like of which the world has never seen before !!
If you are trading for more than 1 or 2 ticks and longer than a couple of minutes,this could be seen as an improvement. Larger size and tighter markets will let you do more size for a cheaper price. A lot of the excess has been sucked out already in the shorter time frames. Might be better for some traders.
Great!!!... more bots and .. the next crisis they are wiped out!...remember what's happened to the DOM when there is a credit crunch news, a squeeze, etc.. you can easily see that on Treasuries /Bunds mkts where the DOM is usually heavy...ok, then they are going to fund again those accounts..