

Arrest Over Software Illuminates Wall St. Secret  - siculars
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/business/24trading.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

======
joezydeco
_"At a bail hearing three days later, a federal prosecutor asked that Mr.
Aleynikov be held without bond because the code could be used to “unfairly
manipulate” stock prices."_

Yet somehow we trust that Goldman isn't doing the very same thing with this
code? C'mon...

------
gaius
_Sabrina Shroff, a public defender who represents Mr. Aleynikov, responded
that he had transferred less than 32 megabytes of Goldman proprietary code, a
small fraction of the overall program, which is at least 1,224 megabytes._

32M is more than enough source to compile to 1224M of binary. This is C++
right?

~~~
roundsquare
In any event, its unlikely that all the code is even necessary/helpful.
Probably a lot of it is just to use the Goldman infrastructure to connect to
markets, etc...

If you were going to steal code like this, you'd just want to steal the basic
logic, not all the details (that is, to minimize chances of being caught).

------
Zak
This article leads me to wonder: could an individual engage in high-speed
trading? Could this be a new way for hackers to make a profit?

~~~
tricky
Sure, but you'd have to lea$e $erver $pace on the exchange floor to minimize
latency. Your best bet is to come up with algorithms, prove they work and sell
them to people who are already there.

------
siculars
the money looks very good, but clearly it is not in the interest of your well
heeled employer to let you go. im sure as far as they are concerned they would
most like to see you terminated permanently rather than just in your hr
records.

so, any recommended reading here on "software that enables the buying and
selling of shares in milliseconds". obviously not something that... obvious ;)

