HFT Trading Day 4 … Katsuyama Wins!

It seems the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 is to CNN as HFT trading is to CNBC…

That’s what one could reasonably conclude from the amount of attention garnered by the financial news network stemming from the Sunday night 60 Minutes piece with “Flash Boys” author Michael Lewis that all seemed to come to a head in this CNBC segment from yesterday that reportedly stopped trading (by humans) on Wall Street.

As shown below, viewers weighed in and saw it as a one-sided affair with IEX’s Brad Katsuyama (the good guy from Canada) besting BATS Global Markets president William O’Brien (the bad guy from Wall Street).

In the highlight clip linked to above (the full segment clocks in at over 20 minutes, and that was just too much to bear – thanks to CNBC for providing the highlights only), O’Brien loses in the first 10 seconds on body language and demeanor alone.

He probably single-handedly reinforced most of the negative stereotypes that Wall Street types have earned over the years and that’s probably a good thing.