Dude, he was trading D1. No switches, flies, etc. He could have used any of the commercial front ends to accomplish what you’re suggesting. Read the complaint. I am done repeating myself.
I read the complaint: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-vns/file/1070461/download There are some parts of it that you would have to read extremely generously, in favor of the government, to even accuse him of what is being said. D1/flies/switches, I have no idea what any of that means. Idea was pretty f'ing clever though, gotta say.
I was at Millennium in 2006. I was chatting with a buddy from ET who is a whale. He was trading some small cap shit with ADV of like 3MM. He was bidding 40K at 18. I told him that I was going to offer 900K shares at 0.50 above the ask. He dared me to do it. I saw his fill and I offered 920K at 18.5 or so. The NBBO dropped 60 cents. It’s not clever. Made (even more) fraudulent when the ISV codes actions which allow the book to display size that does not exist.
I liked the way he wanted to remain at the back of the book, that was cool. The rest of it, yeah I get it.
Acquittal from the DOJ is not a claim of innocence. This man is not innocent. He's just not guilty in the eyes of the DOJ. What he did was ethically and morally bankrupt. As a software engineer, guys like this bring the reputation of my entire field down. Cryptography is not free speech. I am a very active proponent of encrypting everything everywhere. I can tell you with certainty cryptography is not free speech in the eyes of the law. Cryptography is classified as a weapon in the United States, making it's export significantly more difficult. It is effectively "regulated, but tolerated" in the United States which is why all of the drama around Clipper Chip 2.0 is so big for people in my field. If it was free speech you would find it difficult as an investigator to compel someone to reveal a key (IANAL but this would be a 5th amendment violation). However, the courts have ruled you can be compelled and must give up any associated keys, passwords, etc for encrypted archives.
Delta1 = shares, futures. No spreads. Flies = term structure in deliverables. Switches = term structure. Like a 1:1 calendar in futures. X_Trader had more overhead on features than Sarao could ever use.
Got it. I would still suggest that you not look at it from the point of everyone being guilty since that way brings trouble.
He didn't even write the code dude. Please don't jump to conclusions without all the facts. If a precedent is incorrectly set, any software engineer can be accused and arrested for how their software was used.