The Cities Casinos

An interesting news item caught my eye this morning on the BBC News website, that I thought might prove of use/amusement/alarm to you.

Interesting that Lord Myners also thinks that there is no long term value to high frequency trading, instead believing that “the process risked destroying the relationship between an investor and a company”.

Later on in the article, he says that investment bankers were of the opinion that high frequency trading was good for investors as it "drives down the cost of capital". However, he was of the opposite opinion, stating: “"I think the fact that people can own shares for nano-seconds seems completely divorced from the concept of a joint stock company and distributed share ownership”.

This ties in well with Warren Buffett’s way of thinking. Again, according to another article on the BBC News website, he never indulges in high frequency trading. Instead he seems to invest in the long term. Indeed even the article says that Buffett has “trained himself to ignore short-term share price movements, either up or down”.

Has the thrill and the need for speed and timeliness reached the limit? Are these financial figureheads expounding the way forward?

Clearly it is time for change in the cities casinos.