No, I am not that old I was mentored by people who have traded in the 70s and had friends have traded even earlier. My close friend died right before the GFC - he started on NYSE (as a runner, he was in his early teens) two weeks before the Black Tuesday. Oh, the stories he'd tell me.
So you are just stabbing at the dark with this line... "...it was worse as they had a lot of structural advantages and there was not technological way to get around them..." I do not abide people who say they know about a thing, when they have not been around the thing. I could give slack for a decade off. But 3 or 4 decades? Come on!
I try not to make statements about things I know nothing about (except women, of course) Well, that's what history books are for, right? We might not have a first hand experience living during the Black Plague, but we know enough to understand that it sucked.
What kind of exchange fees and commissions do HFT's pay per R/T ? I guess they all have seats on the CME, right ?
Man, you know what I mean. Now you're being smarmy. I'm kicking sand in your eyes and leaving the sandbox. P.S. What are history books? Is that an app?
I know what you mean, in general you always want to hear some first-hand experience. It would be interesting to see if anyone here has traded in the 70s, less so the 50s. Exchange fees are similar for all (adjusted for exchange membership in case of futures) while the market data is more expensive. The truly fast guys work directly with the clearing houses and are broker-dealers themselves so no commissions.
Yeah, I want someone from the past 70, 80, 90+ years ago to tell me how it really was WHILE THEY WERE THERE, and if someone had a true advantage like today's HFT. I bet they did not.
@sle is right. The MM's back in the days were unscrupulous. Read this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...f02-9d22-585cf53c8548/?utm_term=.21581f1d42e6. You don't even want to know the spread that the guy was facing. Option spreads are fat still today but it was lot narrower than those days thanks to electronic trading and competition. Before, everything was controlled by those MM's.
70, 80, 90+ years ago??!! I don't think you would be able to find much of those guys around. In order for them to be able to tell you what was going on back in those prescribed years, they would have to be at least adults to be trading, at least 18 years old. Assume even they were 18 back then, trading 70 years ago, they would be 88 years old today; you might be still able to find some of those guys around if you don't mind spending a day at a nursing home chatting them up if their mind is still clear enough but 80, 90+ years ago, not much chance.