I have one minor disagreement here, which isn’t even that important...
”Torres gives an example of an “evil organization” at which effective altruists recommend people work: the proprietary trading firm Jane Street. But Jane Street seems at worst useless. There are many criticisms to be made of a system in which people earn obscene amounts of money making sure that the price of a stock in Tokyo equalizes with the price of a stock in London slightly faster than it otherwise would.”
I think there’s a possibiilty Jane street could not just be “at worst useless” but be at least a little net negative (personally I would put it in the (5%-30% chance range). Potential positive effects are there like increasing liquidity to the market. On the other hand that kind of high frequency trading they do has potential to destabilise markets. Also this kind of firm may well concentrate wealth and increase inequality which might be bad.
Would the world be better or worse if High frequency trading firms like Jane Street didn’t exist? Hard to say, but they might be so I don’t think Jane street are “at worst useless”.
Great article love it!
I have one minor disagreement here, which isn’t even that important...
”Torres gives an example of an “evil organization” at which effective altruists recommend people work: the proprietary trading firm Jane Street. But Jane Street seems at worst useless. There are many criticisms to be made of a system in which people earn obscene amounts of money making sure that the price of a stock in Tokyo equalizes with the price of a stock in London slightly faster than it otherwise would.”
I think there’s a possibiilty Jane street could not just be “at worst useless” but be at least a little net negative (personally I would put it in the (5%-30% chance range). Potential positive effects are there like increasing liquidity to the market. On the other hand that kind of high frequency trading they do has potential to destabilise markets. Also this kind of firm may well concentrate wealth and increase inequality which might be bad.
Would the world be better or worse if High frequency trading firms like Jane Street didn’t exist? Hard to say, but they might be so I don’t think Jane street are “at worst useless”.