Loading ...Back in the 70′ and 80’s if I wanted to buy a stock I had to telephone a broker, or call in to my bank. They always had the edge on me, maybe by days rather than nanoseconds as now, but everything moved slower back then. We have much, much quicker access to data now than we did fifty years ago but sure, they are still ahead of us. Actually, with online brokerage we used to be able to move markets ourselves.
Think back to the story of Nathan Rothschild moving the markets by spreading rumours about Napoleon being victorious at Waterloo, before cleaning up by buying everything at the bottom. Because he had a private hi-speed courier bring him the news, hours or even days before the official version was available.
First recorded options trade, 2,600 years ago.
https://medium.com/@robswc/the-first-yolo-trade-in-history-85251b910fee
Everything is getting quicker, but the principles remain the same.