[throwaway7281]

Just sampling: The last billionaire I looked up was a north american mining guy. He owns mines, in Africa. Can you guess which country? Yes exactly, the one that prospers much more than the others.

Basically, the "work" has to come from somewhere. The reason FB is rich is because 2+B people choose to work for free. The reason Google is rich is because they do not have to create the content (in fact, "content creators" are pushed to the back seat). The reason Amazon is rich is because you can use cheap labor and sprinkle tech-efficiency on it. The reason all gig-companies are rich is because they can circumvent many "worker-rights". The reason Microsoft is rich is because they give a damn about compatibility and competition (the will extinguish probably even the classic "open source", given enough time).

Some hedge funds are rich, because they buy the order-flow data of poor people playing with their money - maybe they use it against them, maybe not.

I cannot see non-exploitation in any of these. Another grandiosely self-serving essay by a rich man, who thinks he has figured out how the world works.

If he really had, he would probably want to change it. For the better - which is probably much harder then just doing more of the same.

Edit: I sometimes think people who write these things are painfully aware of the kind of illusion they create and choose to create it nevertheless. Mundus vult decipi.

[smabie]

First of all, most market making firms that buy order flow are not hedge funds, they are proprietary trading firms. They trade their own capital, not their investors' capital. Second of all, payment for order flow is massively beneficial for retail investors. If you look at the price improvements being offered, the zero commission, and the tight spreads being quoted, the vast majority of retail investors are benefiting greatly from this arrangement. If however you are trading large lots (hundreds of thousands of dollars worth), then the marking makers start to become somewhat more menacing.

[frakkingcylons]

> Some hedge funds are rich, because they buy the order-flow data of poor people playing with their money

Hedge funds do not pay retail brokerages for order flow. The vast majority of trading activity from retail investors is motivated by public information, so it offers basically no insight worth paying for.

This is the exact reason why market makers do pay for order flow. They can safely execute a huge number of these trades with very little risk and collectively make a hefty profit from the small spread.

[pvorb]

> I sometimes think people who write these things are painfully aware of the kind of illusion they create and choose to create it nevertheless. Mundus vult decipi.

Yes. If this is all you need to calm others and your own mind, I would probably do it, too.