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Comment by henrik_w | Hacker News Reader

The book "Flash Boys" by Michael Lewis chronicles the rise of HFT, and basically argues that it doesn't really provide that much of a benefit.

http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Michael-Lewis/dp/0393244660...

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Standard PSA about "Flash Boys". If you are interested in HFT you are better off quite literally not reading that book than reading it. It is very biased and largely inaccurate.

If you want to read narrative non-fiction about HFT, "Dark Pools" by Patterson, which also has its mistakes, is much better.

Are there any other resources you can recommend for learning more about HFT?

For blog post style reading 'yummyfajitas' series on HFT is good:

https://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2012/hft_apology.html

For technical books:

- Trading & Exchanges by Harris (a little out of date)

- Algorithmic Trading & DMA by Johnson.

On the narrative non-fiction side Dark Pools is basically it.

Great, thanks!

There are several books which speak about HFT at a high level. If you are curious about the actual mechanics of stock exchanges and (a bit about) how various parties make their money, I wrote a bit about it at http://falconair.github.io/2015/01/05/financial-exchange.htm...

I would also recommend reading "Flash Boys: Not so Fast" (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P0QI2M2).

Written by a high frequency trader. Are there any third parties that have deeply explored HFT and come out in defense of it?

Sure. Vanguard has the widely publicized view that HFT helps to bring down the cost to retail investors for instance

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff8c6486-cb37-11e3-ba95-00144feabd...

This is a really fun read. Thanks for pointing it out!

Suggest you read this rebuttal. Lewis' book is deeply flawed. http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Insiders-Perspective-High-F...

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