Reply #40: I think I heard about a pioneer of this scheme 3 or 4 years ago

[DFW]

A friend of mine in Brussels told me about an American guy he knew who was a computer genius but a social
basket case. He was divorced, broke, and sleeping on a friend's couch when he came up with what sounds a
lot like this trading strategy. I never knew the details, as it's out of my league, but as I understand it,
it involved the trading of millions and millions of shares of stock each day all by computer with the tiniest
of margins. He found out that if he micro-managed his program, that he could make over a million dollars a
day. Sure enough, within 2 years, he had made himself nearly a billion dollars. UBS in Switzerland offered
him one billion Swiss francs (about $800 million at the time) for his program, which was so complex that he
would have had to work for them to manage it. UBS had no one who could. The guy became completely paranoid,
and had nothing but money and zero social life, as he assumed that any woman even willing to talk to him
was after his money, even though he was so secretive, you probably couldn't even tell.

This was several years ago, and obviously someone else either found out, or thought up the same scheme on his
or her own. Once more than one person was doing this, obviously it would have led to major market manipulation.
Now, maybe 4 years later, the SEC might figure out how to put a stop to it, but there are a few brand new
billionaires out there that won't care any more.