That was beautiful. Thank you for posting that link. I will synthesize all of it into something cohesive as I sleep, but all I know is it was powerful.
Seveneves is a great book (although a little grim for my taste), but it is not about Kessler Syndrome. It's about a scenario where (spoiler alert for the first sentence), the Moon blows up, and humanity has to deal with the consequences.
> So that’s what you need to know about money, right? If that is your primary measure of success or value in life, then good luck with that, because it will never feel good.
This has the sound of a subject matter expert speaking with authority. And it makes me feel like my adult life so far has been a waste
Having no money in your bank account can definitely impact your feeling of self worth. It can make a lot of other people angry at you, like landlords, power companies, etc...
Money is a pretty objective assessment what's a person's worth. It's an actual measurable quantity, it's meaning doesn't vary from person to person like it does other indicators of worth (i.e looks, personality, altruism etc.)
I'm not sure anything about the question at hand, a person's worth, is objective. Money is easy enough to measure and compare though, and I think that's part of it's appeal as a measure. It's precise even if it's not accurate.
> Metalization, he explained, is the process by which aluminum is deposited on both sides of the film. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum go from being not on the film to being on the film without at least some Scotch tape? “They evaporate aluminum and deposit it on it,” said Mr. Shetty. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum be evaporated? “It’s a very, very thin layer. They put it in a vacuum chamber, then evaporate the aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. “With heat,” his son added. “What are they evaporating out of it?” I asked. “Aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. I have no idea how humans figured out how to do that, or why it occurred to them to even try, but it sounds expensive.
And by selling info about customer orders to front runners. IIUC, these are high frequency traders who may place similar orders milliseconds in advance of yours then profit from the fact that you have to pay a bit more to fill your order. Full disclosure, I continue to use Robinhood despite this.
It is not front running. These HFT are called market makers. Essentially, brokers show you the NBBO - National Best Bid and Offer. When you place an order on that price, one of the many market makers will pick it up. At any given point of time they will hold multiple buys/sells. So, they make money by collecting the spreads.
Nearly all brokers tend to sell order information to one or many market makers. It is neither illegal nor harm retail customers, not unless these customers are trying to run some HFT algos on their own.
This is highly illegal and taken very seriously. Is this speculation on your part or do you know this for a fact (in which case, you should report it).
It's been widely reported [0]. And as I said I feel like it's still a fair deal. Some HFT's get my orders and they know I purchased 2 AMZN yesterday a few seconds before it executed. In return I get to trade for free on their platform.
