In an interview on CBS Copr's "60 Minutes," an author has stepped up and publicly chastised traders for ripping off investors. Michael Lewis, whose book "Flash Boys" tackles the high-frequency stock business, said that the US has allowed stock traders to manipulate the stock market with strategies to complicated to be understood by individual investors. He also claimed in the interview that the strategies were complicated that the traders are able to rig the market without violating any laws.
"The United States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism, is rigged. It's crazy that it's legal for some people to get advance news on prices and what investors are doing," Lewis said.
Lewis is no stranger to the financial world, Bloomberg said. His earlier books, Liar's Poker" and "The Big Short," focus of excesses in Wall Street. Lewis is also currently tapped as a columnist for Bloomberg.
The news agency said that Lewis' comments followed the decision of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to launch a probe over the privileges that are marketed to traders that allow them to install computers near exchanges and purchase access to fast streams of data. Moreover, US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also announced their own review on the current rules in the market that had reportedly allowed professional traders more access to data.
Co-head of equity trading Joe Saluzzi at Themis Trading LLC, who is also a staunch critic of the current status quo in the financial markets, lauded Lewis' book ahead of the "60 Minutes" interview. He said, "We believe Lewis's book can have a big impact on complex market-structure issues that have been simmering for years. Hopefully this type of publicity will finally force regulators to take action on issues that they've been sitting on for way too long."
