Friday, July 10, 2009

Heavy Russian Internet Traffic and the Programming Theft

The latest news that another Russian trader has been involved of late in alleged theft of computer trading codes now has me wondering if this may have something to do with a spike in recent weeks in traffic to EPJ out of Moscow.

It's not unusual for visits from Russia, but the traffic at times in recent weeks has been extremely heavy. I noted another financial blogger post the same about traffic to his site (I read a lot of blogs and it is not something I recorded at the time, so I am not sure which blog it was).

Could part of the Goldman and Citadel trading programs require visiting financial blogs to determine what stocks are being mentioned with more frequency? To get a sense for what stocks may be more liquid, or are developing more of a following for either upside or downside action?

Is this what Moscow players are up to now?

1 comment:

  1. Robert, you did this in two posts now, so it is time to correct something. You have referenced "computer trading codes" or "computer codes". The term is "code", the plural of which is "code". This is short for "source code", which is the sequence of instructions a programmer writes to carry out a function.

    If you have the source code for these systems, you can discern the algorithms that are being used to fleece other users of the NYSE.

    Seems picky, but if someone says to me they have the "computer trading codes", it sounds as if they have passwords, which would be a whole different kettle of fish.

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