Flash Boys is the first book I read from Michael Lewis, the well-known author writing non-fiction about things close to the Wall Street. The book covers several fascinating stories from the secretive world of high-frequency trading (HFT). In one of them a visionary entrepreneur builds a straight cable from the Chicago future exchanges to the New York stock exchanges in order to win a few milliseconds compared to existing connections between the cities.

Throughout the book HFT is portrayed as a predator which only purpose is to enable trading firms to steal money from investors. For those aspiring a career in HFT the text may raise second thoughts. The heros in the book are a team creating IEX, a new kind of market place where the HFT shops would not have an edge.

I enjoyed many personal stories in the book. Laying optical fiber cable is always cool. And reading it gave me a better understanding of not only HFT but also of dark pools and the role of investment banks in trading.