This article made me think about something: http://www.businessweek.com/magazin...op+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+++analysis If the current crisis flushes out most of Wall Street's elites out of the system, would this bring about a new and better era in trading for smaller players? I think all these big time speculators, hedge fund managers, mega fund managers, market makers and arbitrageurs made trading difficult. I am not trying to argue against efficient market theory, but there is a fine line between being a market player and making investment decisions based on the best available information to manipulating the markets, and I think many of these big players were doing the latter instead of the former. I am sure liquidity would dry up without the big players, which is not a good thing, but the tradeoff is worth it.