“When Ari Rubenstein heard that Michael Lewis was writing a book on his industry, he was overjoyed. A fan of the author, Mr Rubenstein assumed that his tribe of high-frequency traders would be portrayed as underdog heroes who took on and triumphed over a wealthy, entrenched group of Wall Street’s elite — much like Moneyball, Mr Lewis’s 2003 tale of Oakland Athletics upending baseball.
“I thought, finally, someone is going to glorify what we’ve been able to do. A bunch of people were able to disrupt the industry, create a lot of efficiency, save people a lot of money and get rid of the middlemen in the process — and I was like, ‘Holy cow! is he going to call us?’” says Mr Rubenstein. “And then, when I found out that, ‘Oh no, you’re the villain’, I was really surprised.”
Mr Lewis’s 2014 book Flash Boys — or simply “The Book” — as it is glumly referred to by high-frequency traders — was a bombshell, with its accusations of “rigging” the US stock market triggering outrage in the industry and a raft of investigations.”
