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The Man in the Arena

25

June, 2010

A good friend, Larry Doyle, pointed us to a speech by Teddy Roosevelt that he gave in Paris, France in 1910.  The speech titled “The Man in the Arena” became known for this famous quote:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again

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2 Responses to “The Man in the Arena”

  1. Jamie Selway
    June 25th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
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    “If your grandfather was HFT, and your father was an HFT, what would that make you, sir?”


  2. Natan
    June 28th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
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    Joe – your characterisation of specialists doesn’t resonate with me – they were the ones caught abusing their priveledges, stepping in front of client orders, consistently making the type of returns-on-capital normally associated with monopolies (and indeed they had no competitors in their own stocks). By contrast, HFT firms have to compete and enjoy no priveledges – although you argue that by outspending the buyside on technology they are able to extract a competitive advantage. The market is fairer now than it was then, but it’s MUCH more competitive than it was – and some of the competitors are insanely smart. We both agree that trading institutional orders has got tougher – but we disagree on what should be done about it. Of course, we can probably both be right (or wrong) at the same time!


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