Mark Cuban: Calvin and his people brought down the stock market

http://blogmaverick.com/2010/05/09/what-business-is-wall-street-in/

I jest a little, but an interesting read nonetheless from a successful entrepreneur (or is it, entlepleneul?). Traders--from day to high frequency--are responsible for bringing the stock market down in less than seconds.

That's partially unfair to say, Mark, Calvin and his friends are good guys who wouldn't do such a thing.

Some quotes from Cuban's blog post:

"To traders, whether day traders or high frequency or somewhere in between, Wall Street has nothing to do with creating capital for businesses, its original goal. Wall Street is a platform. It’s a platform to be exploited by every technological and intellectual means possible."

"The best analogy for traders ? They are hackers. Just as hackers search for and exploit operating system and application shortcomings, traders do the same thing. A hacker wants to jump in front of your shopping cart and grab your credit card and then sell it. A high frequency trader wants to jump in front of your trade and then sell that stock to you. A hacker will tell you that they are serving a purpose by identifying the weak links in your system. A trader will tell you they deserve the pennies they are making on the trade because they provide liquidity to the market."

"Big traders who are always leveraging up and maximizing the number of trades/hacks they make will always put the system at risk."

Editor note to Calvin--This is the perfect opportunity to attack Mark Cuban and let him know that the DC boys don't need a basketball team to play wallstreet ball.