Interesting read.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/-it-sounds-like-something.ars
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/-it-sounds-like-something.ars
It sounds like something out of The Matrix: a giant, world-spanning electronic network where high-powered machines, some of them using GPUs to gain a speed advantage, run secret, rapidly-evolving software algorithms that battle it out for profits in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse, attack-counterattack, that yields some $21 billion a year for the winners and can spell ruin for the losers. Except that it's not The Matrix—it's the stock and commodities markets, and the fact that these markets mainly consist now of computers trading against one another has been brought closer to the public's attention by last month's alleged theft of Goldman Sachs' proprietary trading code.