The Holy Grail Of Trading Has Been Found: HFT Firm Reveals 1 Losing Day In 1238 days
Thank you for the link
The part where the data about 1 losing day is is here : https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1592386/000104746914002070/a2218589zs-1.htm#dm16701_business
I have been blabbing about that for a long time : we can get only what is left after the HFT guys clean up the market (if we are not the cleaned up in the process) . HFT + frauds + rate rigging = trading is not a fair game any more for a long, long time
i thought Goldman's Sachs had the Holy Grail
they store it in the basement by all the super computers
have n't GS only had about 3 loosing days in the last 10yrs?
maybe there's two Holy Grails?
quite a good story, and seems the boss is probably going to cut and run now he's made all his cash
can't blame him though now the FED(s) have exposed him
Wall Street To Likely Get New Billionaire As Virtu Prepares For IPO
Theres a good chance that Virtu CEO Vincent Viola will be the latest Wall Street CEO to hit billionaire status.
Viola, the founder–and majority shareholder–of New York high-frequency market maker, Virtu, stands to make a fortune as his firm readies to go public on NASDAQ. The Financial Times reported today that the IPO could fetch a valuation of $3 billion and that Viola (who owns more than 65% of the shares) could net a paper fortune worth more than $2 billion. Also cashing in–Silver Lake Partners who put $250 million in the company back in 2011 when Virtu merged with Madison Tyler–a market maker also founded by Viola.
Last September Viola bought the NHL’s Florida Panthers in a $240 million deal that according to Forbes “includes the Florida Panthers, the operating agreement with the Broward County-owned BB&T Center, the three-sheet IcePlex in Coral Springs and the rights to develop nine acres surrounding BB&T Center.”
Virtu, a high tech, high frequency trader, makes markets in more than 10,000 securities across 210 exchanges. According to the Virtu S1, in 2013 it had revenues of $664.5 million and net income of $182 million. Virtu said it ”had only one losing trading day during the period depicted, a total of 1,238 trading days.”
Viola graduated from West Point and served in the Army’s 101 Airborne Division before going on to trade at the NYMEX in 1982. He would later become chairman. Viola started market maker Madison Tyler in 2002. He cofounded Virtu in 2008–and merged the firms together in 2011.
We’ll be watching Virtu closely as the IPO approaches. It is possible that Viola could net a fortune worth more than $2.25 billion (Virtu and the Panthers)–and given the frothy equity markets, it’s a number that could climb much higher once the stock starts trading.
I love Viola...
Guess Vincent Viola likes it even more 
New York seeks curbs on high-frequency trading
There are concerns that certain services provided to them give high-speed traders an unfair advantage
New York's attorney general has called for curbs on services provided to high-frequency traders.
In particular Eric Schneiderman highlighted services that allow traders to get faster access to information.
He said traders can make "rapid and often risk-free trades before the rest of the market can react".
High frequency trading is where firms create sophisticated computer programs to buy and sell stocks in milliseconds, faster than any human.
It has grown in popularity in recent years, but it has also come under scrutiny.
"Rather than curbing the worst threats posed by high-frequency traders, our markets are becoming too focused on catering to them," said Mr Schneiderman.
'Fundamentally unfair'
On Tuesday, Mr Schneiderman raised concerns that firms specialising in high-frequency trading were benefitting from the special services provided by stock exchanges.
He said the services allowed such firm to gain access to key data - including pricing, volume, trade and order confirmation - before other investors, allowing them to take positions in the market accordingly.
"For instance, high-frequency traders look for arbitrage opportunities between and among the various exchanges, moving on price and order information before the rest of the market is even able to digest it," he said.
He added that allowing firms to place their servers on location helped them "to continuously monitor all the exchanges for large incoming orders".
"If a firm can detect a large order from an institutional investor - like a pension fund - it can instantaneously position itself on the other side of the trade, driving up the prices artificially," he said.
"I am committed to cracking down on fundamentally unfair - and potentially illegal - arrangements that give elite groups of traders early access to market-moving information at the expense of the rest of the market."
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Think JPM's zero trading day losses in 2013 was impressive? Prepare to have your mind blown. The chart below shows the chart of daily net trading income by High Frequency Trading titan Virtu, taken from its just filed IPO prospectus. The punchline: in 4 years of trading Virtu has had one, one, day in which it lost money.
From the S-1: "The chart below illustrates our daily Adjusted Net Trading Income from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2013. As a result of our real-time risk management strategy and technology, we had only one losing trading day during the period depicted, a total of 1,238 trading days. "
Let that sink in: one trading loss day and 1237 days of profits. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the Holy Grail of the New Normal broken, manipulated markets.
How is this statistical anomaly possible? For those who have been following our narrative on the market-manipulating, endless crime that is HFT will know all too well. When you have a "strategy" whose only mission is to frontrun order flow, and scalp pennies from every market order - that would be billions of market orders in a period of four years - there is no risk, as confirmed by the chart above. Furthermore, since all HFT really does is accentuate momentum but making the bid chase NBBO ever higher, in a market that is manipulated top down by the Fed itself, all HFTs really do is simply enable the Fed's policy at the micro level, and thus such crimes are not only ignored, but welcomed by the New Normal overlords.
It also explains why fundamentals haven't mattered in years - the only thing that does matter is to quickly open one's own HFT stop, frontrun as much order flow as possible, and scalp pennies ahead of the bid and ask... billions and billions of times, leading to the statistically improbable chart pictured above.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why retail has given up - when companies want to go public and no longer even hide the "secret sauce" which confirms beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a two-tier market: one in which the HFTs just never lose, and one for everyone else, well: who would want to play in a casino so explicitly rigged?
And while there are countless losers, there are also few winners: such as the billionaire founder of Virtu Vincent Viola, who was recently selling his NYC mansion for $114 million, who just made $270 million in 2013 adjusted EBITDA courtesy of the Virtu "can't lose" money machine.
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