At risk of me-tooing: This book is great. It's a fun read watching him destroy Lewis's book.

The Flash Boys book is so obviously incorrect. Lewis writes stuff that, if taken seriously, would imply things like major traders not understanding basic price impact. Or major traders having trojans placed on their computers. One anecdote he mentions is something like "I entered an order but didn't press execute. The price changed!" ... As if there's some sort of conspiracy.

Lewis's main point seems to be that it's no fair you can't sell a million shares of something without moving the price.

It is disheartening to see someone get things so wrong, have glaring inconsistencies, and yet get wide acclaim. Just another instance of Gell-Mann amnesia effect. Probably many popular books are just flat-out wrong and we collectively just go on thinking incorrectly.

Alternative review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23570025-flash-boys

Oh, thanks. Have not seen that and will check it out.

Dark Pools isn't by Michael Lewis, it's by Scott Patterson.

Huh. You're right. Wonder where that impression came from, then..

I'm about 90% sure that Lewis mentions it in his "acknowledgements" in Flash Boys, as a great resource to go more in depth (which is why I ended up reading it). You might have made that association.

Maybe. When it came out, everybody was talking about the two in an almost identical light. That probably didn't help, either :)