The cover of Flash Boys

Flash Boys

Michael Lewis, 2014

Brad Katsuyama and a band of Wall Street insiders discover how speed traders profit from tiny time advantages over investors, then build a new stock exchange, IEX, to stop them.

Get the app Read on the web

10 parts, about 18 minutes to read.

Why read it

Shows how an edge of microseconds lets high frequency traders see investors' orders coming and trade ahead of them
Follows a trader whose screens showed shares that vanished when he pressed Buy, and the programmers who traced why
Explains how a new exchange uses coiled fiber to delay orders and blunt the advantage of speed, and how Wall Street resisted

Who it is for

Investors who want to know how their stock orders get filled
Readers puzzled by high frequency trading and dark pools
Readers asking whether the stock market is rigged

What the summary covers

Introduction: Windows on the World1 min
Chapter One: Hidden in Plain Sight2 min
Chapter Two: Brad's Problem2 min
Chapter Three: Ronan's Problem2 min
Chapter Four: Tracking the Predator2 min
Chapter Five: Putting a Face on HFT2 min
Chapter Six: How to Take Billions from Wall Street2 min
Chapter Seven: An Army of One3 min
Chapter Eight: The Spider and the Fly1 min
Epilogue: Riding the Wall Street Trail1 min

Recommended by

Malcolm GladwellAuthor and journalist
I read Michael Lewis for the same reasons I watch Tiger Woods. I'll never play like that. But it's good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like
Tom WolfeNovelist and journalist
Probably the best current writer in America

About the author

Michael LewisAmerican author and financial journalist; former Salomon Brothers bond salesman
- Born 15 October 1960 in New Orleans
- MSc in economics 1985
- Bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in London
- Liar's Poker (1989) described his Salomon experience
- Vanity Fair contributing editor 2009 to 2026

More books like this