Kirjahaku

Financial markets, processes, and instruments are often difficult to fathom; the credit crisis highlights both their importance and their fragility. Donald MacKenzie is one of the most perceptive analysts of the workings of the financial world. In this book, he argues that economic agents and markets need to be analyzed in their full materiality: their physicality, their corporeality, their technicality. Markets are populated not by disembodied, abstract agents, but by embodied human beings and technical systems. Concepts and systematic ways of thinking that simplify market processes and make them mentally tractable are essential to how markets function. In putting forward this material sociology of markets, the book synthesizes and contributes to the field of social studies of finance; the application to financial markets not just of economics but of wider social-science disciplines, in particular science and technology studies. The topics covered include the development of financial derivatives exchanges; arbitrage; how corporate profit figures are constructed; the crucial new markets in carbon emissions; and a case-study of a hedge fund (based, unusually, on direct observation of its trading). The book will appeal to research students and academics across the social sciences, and the general reader will enjoy the book's explanations and analyses of some of the most important phenomena of today's turbulent markets.

Financial markets, processes, and instruments are often difficult to fathom; the credit crisis highlights both their importance and their fragility. Donald MacKenzie is one of the most perceptive analysts of the workings of the financial world. In this book, he argues that economic agents and markets need to be analyzed in their full materiality: their physicality, their corporeality, their technicality. Markets are populated not by disembodied, abstract agents, but by embodied human beings and technical systems. Concepts and systematic ways of thinking that simplify market processes and make them mentally tractable are essential to how markets function. In putting forward this material sociology of markets, the book synthesizes and contributes to the new field of social studies of finance: the application to financial markets not just of economics but of wider social-science disciplines, in particular science and technology studies. The topics covered include the development of financial derivatives exchanges (non-existent in 1970, but now trading products equivalent to $13,000 for every human being on earth); arbitrage; how corporate profit figures are constructed; the crucial new markets in carbon emissions; and a case-study of a hedge fund (based, unusually, on direct observation of its trading). The book will appeal to research students and academics across the social sciences, and the general reader will enjoy the book's explanations and analyses of some of the most important phenomena of today's turbulent markets.

A remarkable look at how the growth, technology, and politics of high-frequency trading have altered global financial marketsIn today’s financial markets, trading floors on which brokers buy and sell shares face-to-face have increasingly been replaced by lightning-fast electronic systems that use algorithms to execute astounding volumes of transactions. Trading at the Speed of Light tells the story of this epic transformation. Donald MacKenzie shows how in the 1990s, in what were then the disreputable margins of the US financial system, a new approach to trading—automated high-frequency trading or HFT—began and then spread throughout the world. HFT has brought new efficiency to global trading, but has also created an unrelenting race for speed, leading to a systematic, subterranean battle among HFT algorithms.In HFT, time is measured in nanoseconds (billionths of a second), and in a nanosecond the fastest possible signal—light in a vacuum—can travel only thirty centimeters, or roughly a foot. That makes HFT exquisitely sensitive to the length and transmission capacity of the cables connecting computer servers to the exchanges’ systems and to the location of the microwave towers that carry signals between computer datacenters. Drawing from more than 300 interviews with high-frequency traders, the people who supply them with technological and communication capabilities, exchange staff, regulators, and many others, MacKenzie reveals the extraordinary efforts expended to speed up every aspect of trading. He looks at how in some markets big banks have fought off the challenge from HFT firms, and how exchanges sometimes engineer technical systems to favor certain types of algorithms over others.Focusing on the material, political, and economic characteristics of high-frequency trading, Trading at the Speed of Light offers a unique glimpse into its influence on global finance and where it could lead us in the future.

A remarkable look at how the growth, technology, and politics of high-frequency trading have altered global financial marketsIn today’s financial markets, trading floors on which brokers buy and sell shares face-to-face have increasingly been replaced by lightning-fast electronic systems that use algorithms to execute astounding volumes of transactions. Trading at the Speed of Light tells the story of this epic transformation. Donald MacKenzie shows how in the 1990s, in what were then the disreputable margins of the US financial system, a new approach to trading—automated high-frequency trading or HFT—began and then spread throughout the world. HFT has brought new efficiency to global trading, but has also created an unrelenting race for speed, leading to a systematic, subterranean battle among HFT algorithms.In HFT, time is measured in nanoseconds (billionths of a second), and in a nanosecond the fastest possible signal—light in a vacuum—can travel only thirty centimeters, or roughly a foot. That makes HFT exquisitely sensitive to the length and transmission capacity of the cables connecting computer servers to the exchanges’ systems and to the location of the microwave towers that carry signals between computer datacenters. Drawing from more than 300 interviews with high-frequency traders, the people who supply them with technological and communication capabilities, exchange staff, regulators, and many others, MacKenzie reveals the extraordinary efforts expended to speed up every aspect of trading. He looks at how in some markets big banks have fought off the challenge from HFT firms, and how exchanges sometimes engineer technical systems to favor certain types of algorithms over others.Focusing on the material, political, and economic characteristics of high-frequency trading, Trading at the Speed of Light offers a unique glimpse into its influence on global finance and where it could lead us in the future.

Ritchie Duncan, a convict, is released from prison and decides to go clean. But when he is handed some top secret film containing electronic data by a girl in a bar there ensues mayhem and murder. The film is the property of her communist agent boyfriend, and when she refuses to surrender it her connection is killed and she is kept quietly alive in a nursing home until Duncan can save her.'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' Guardian

'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' GuardianEvery thief dreams of committing the perfect crime. Cameron, Thorne and Gun are convinced that the jewel robbery they have planned cannot possibly go wrong, but jealousy mistrust and fear doom the enterprise from the start.One of them dies a slow, hideous death; the other two find they have walked into hell. Soon, a beautiful woman and two desperate men find themselves trapped by their own actions. And when the thread of tension snaps they learn that death can indeed be a friend.

Paul Henderson is a big time jewel thief on a run of bad luck. He has a seven-year-old daughter to support, so when he's offered a partnership in the biggest heist of all time he decides to try to take the baubles and run.He reaches Switzerland, where the crime is to take place, and wangles an invitation to a gala only to be confronted by a double threat, a double cross and a kidnapping. And all this is before the night of the burglary arrives . . .'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' Guardian

Zaleski is a middle-aged philanderer determined to retrieve the Virgin's Dowry, a jeweled monstrance worth £500,000, which has reappeared for display in an art gallery in Conduit Street in London.This ageing Polish patriot carries out the crime but in doing so becomes the target for Detective Inspector John Raven of the CID - one of the most ruthless and capable policemen on the force. 'Perfectly fascinating and perfectly written' Chicago Sun Times

John Raven - the ex-cop with a taste for exotic adventures and voluptuous adventurers - is unexpectedly thrust into the thick of the action. His Andalusian holiday turns out to be no picnic when he finds himself at the crossroads of the snow-white heroin trail and the blood-red trail of international murder . . .'A swift, stylish novel' Publishers Weekly

Terminally ill Polish refugee Henryk Lamprecht, a decoder for British Security, has a score to settle with the Russian who killed his wife and daughter. As he is close to death, he has no time to lose when an opportunity he has been waiting for turns up. But now, through a chance meeting with his old friend Zaleski, ex-cop John Raven is involved, and so is Lamprecht's English sweetheart. And so the game of cat-and-mouse begins . . .'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' Guardian

When John Raven is somehow connected to the case of a criminal abortion that ended in death he finds himself embroiled with his old nemesis, former Chief Superintendent Drake of Scotland Yard. But what Drake doesn't realise is the death is only incidental to the plan for a million-dollar heist. Soon Raven is involved in rescuing a damsel in distress, saving his own skin, preventing a bank robbery and foiling the relentless machinations of his old enemy.'Expertly plotted' Publishers Weekly 'The action is violent and intricately plotted, but it is completely convincing' Spectator

When Kirstie Macfarlane's younger brother is framed for stealing a Van Eyck portrait, she puts the case in the able hands of ex-Scotland Yard Inspector John Raven.Seduced away from his quiet life on the Thames, Raven dives back into the seamy London underworld filled with police corruption and high-handed swindles. Kirstie and Raven soon realise they have more than one opponent and their lives are perilously on the line.'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' Guardian

John Raven - the ex-cop with a taste for exotic adventures and voluptuous adventurers - is unexpectedly thrust into the thick of the action. His Andalusian holiday turns out to be no picnic when he finds himself at the crossroads of the snow-white heroin trail and the blood-red trail of international murder . . .'A swift, stylish novel' Publishers Weekly

London's favourite anti-establishment sleuth, John Raven, visits his photographer-girlfriend Kirstie in Paris. Kirstie, it seems, has inadvertently photographed three men involved in a high-class, multi-million-dollar forgery - the mastermind, financier Kent Tyler, sometime actor Rod De Wayne, and forgery expert Paolo Scotti. The threesome tries to retrieve the incriminating film, which sets Raven on their trail. And by the time Raven and Kirstie track down the villains, ringleader Tyler is set on eliminating his co-conspirators . . .'Starts off fast and keeps speeding up' Los Angeles Times

George Drake, the former Commander at Scotland Yard and nemesis of John Raven, is out of prison having served a sentence for police corruption. In court, Drake vowed retribution on Raven, who was instrumental in his conviction, and now he's out to snare him.When heroin is planted on Raven's houseboat and in his wife Kirstie's camera both husband and wife are arrested, but what will it take for John Raven to clear their names?'Quick moving and sure footed, with sharp, realistic London details' Times Literary Supplement

John Raven and his wife Kirstie are holidaying in Lisbon at Ilona Szecheyi's villa when Ilona's father Stephen reveals his well-guarded secret: shortly before the communist occupation of Hungary in 1945, he was entrusted with 17 million in government gold bullion. Now, thirty-seven years later, the courts have awarded him full ownership of the money - and the current Hungarian regime is not pleased. They will stop at nothing to get it back, and when blackmail and murder strike, Raven can't pull out fast enough before he becomes the main suspect . . .'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' Guardian

When a bent London policeman carries out two ruthless murders, it is with the goal of making himself rich through the sale of stolen diamonds. And to cover his tracks he sets up an ingenious labyrinth of false covers and alibis. But when ex-cop John Raven is brought into the case by accident, it becomes a whodunit with Raven as detective in an exhilarating race against time.

Ex-cop and investigator John Raven becomes involved with a killing carried out in England but arranged by US Intelligence services with the connivance of their English equivalents. And it just so happens that it is a friend of Raven who is manoeuvred by these faceless government agents into carrying out the murder. When Raven starts asking questions about why his friend has been led into this mess, he discovers that to question such forces is a very dangerous occupation . . .