Wall Street Jitters Drive Small Investors to Homegrown Prosperity

The wild swings on Wall Street and other now interconnected bourses in today’s global casino have seen billions withdrawn by small investors.  Their instincts are correct.  Today’s markets are becoming too erratic and volatile for investors – driven by frantic speed trading and speculators.  The usual bromides from market pundits blame China, oil prices, the Fed, slowing global GDP-measured economic growth.  Very few have the courage to point to the fundamental problems:

• The basic structure of securities markets has transformed into fifty or more “unlit” electronic platforms all seeking trading volume by paying kickbacks to broker-dealers for their order flow.
• This new “maker-taker” model leads to a “race-to-the-bottom” of most FINRA members who must now compete with those who take these kickbacks and so can lower their execution fees.  So others follow suit in order to match these reduced fees.

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