If anyone is still confused why the most predatory, parasitic, and in many case criminal, of HFT actors are so vehemently opposed to IEX's HFT-limiting exchange application, here is the reason.
Via Dana Lyons' Tumblr,
Last week’s stock market breadth was extraordinarily positive; similar signals historically have seen the market either launch higher or flame out, depending on the prevailing climate.
Back in late February, when crude prices had just hit a 13 year low, one catalyst unleashed a furious short-covering rally: a WSJ report which cited a delayed SkyNews interview with the UAE energy minister, according to which OPEC would freeze, if not cut production.
By late January, Tim Leissner was irritated.
Irritated that Goldman wouldn’t support his move to Los Angeles to be with his famous wife Kimora Lee, irritated that the firm wouldn’t let him give an internship to the son of a shadowy, as-yet-unnamed go-between in a deal to finance a controlling stake in an Indonesian copper mine, and especially irritated that the bank seemed to be looking a lot harder at the deals he was working on in Southeast Asia in the wake of the 1MDB scandal.