VOA慢速英语:A Closer Look at High-Frequency Trading

Once, stocks were traded through the open outcry system, with men shouting share prices on the floors of stock exchanges.
股票曾经是是以公开喊价方式进行买卖的体系，人们在交易所大声喊出股票的价格。

But the sights and sounds of stock traders furiously exchanging securities has mostly disappeared. They have been replaced by fast, interconnected computers.
而如今这种情景，股票交易者这种竭力叫喊的声音已不复存在，这种交易方式已被快速、互联计算机取代。

Joe Saluzzi is a head of equity trading at Themis Trading in New Jersey.
Joe Saluzzi是新泽西Themis Trading交易部门经理

JOE SALUZZI: “The equity market has changed.  It’s no longer what you see on TV, it’s no longer guys with colored jackets running around the floor anymore. That’s the show, that’s the TV studio. The equity market is a bunch of co-located computers strung together by a bunch of wires, everyone trying to race to zero. The speed of light is the goal—t he speed of light! That’s what we’re looking at now.”
JOE SALUZZI：“股票市场有了变化，已不再是你在电视上看的那样，再也没有穿彩色夹克的男子在地板上跑来跑去。那是作秀，是电视制作棚的作秀。股市是一堆通过电缆连接到一起相互协作的计算机，每台计算机都高速运转，光速才是我们的目标，才是我们现在关注的。”

Computers can process stock trades in thousandths of a second. Andrew Haines of Gain Capital is an online broker.
电脑可以在千分之一秒内处理股票交易。安德鲁海恩斯是Gain Capital公司的在线经纪人。

ANDREW HAINES:  “A millisecond can mean millions of dollars to the success of your strategy. Having a one, two, three-millisecond advantage over other traders may mean that you get into a trade at a preferable price.”
ANDREW HAINES：“在角逐成功的竞赛中，一毫秒意味着数百万美元。若能比别人早那么一毫秒、两毫秒或三毫秒，就意味着可以以优惠价格成交。”

Andrew Haines says an estimated seventy percent of all stock trades are high-frequency trades made with computers. Stocks may be held for only seconds. But fast trades are also blamed for big moves in stock prices.
Andrew Haines说，在全部股票交易中，估计有70%的交易是电脑操作的高频率交易，股票或许只持有几秒钟。但高速交易也导致了股价的剧烈波动。

On May sixth two thousand ten, the leading measure of American stocks briefly fell nearly one thousand points, or about nine percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average then recovered much of those losses by the end of trading that day.
2010年5月6日，美国股市暴跌近1000点，大约下跌9%。随后道琼斯工业指数在当天交易日结束前收复了大部分失地。

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered steps to prevent future “flash crashes” like that one. Joel Hasbrouck of New York University says those steps are working.
美国证监会下令采取措施，以防止未来再次发生类似的快闪跌市。纽约大学的乔尔．哈斯布鲁克说，这些措施已经实施。

JOEL HASBROUCK: “They’re called circuit-breakers, and basically what they mean is that when a stock has moved by a large amount in a short period of time, there’s a trading halt.”
JOEL HASBROUCK说：“这被称为熔断机制，它的大概意思是，当一只股票在短时间内价格大幅波动时就暂停交易。”

Joe Saluzzi of Themis Trading says the main problem with high-speed trading is an unbalanced market.
Themis Trading交易公司的Joe Saluzzi说，高速交易的主要问题是市场的不平衡。

JOE SALUZZI: “The stock market used to be a predictor of the future economy. Now I think the stock market is a backwards predictor. It doesn’t tell you, it’s not forecasting. It’s forecasting the next microsecond move.”
JOE SALUZZI说：“过去股市一向被视为未来经济情况的预测器，不过现在我认为，股市是种滞后的预测器。它不会告诉你这不是预测。它预测下一个微秒的波动。”

But Joel Hasbrouck says high-speed trading can, in fact, reduce sharp rises or drops in stock prices.
然而，Joel Hasbrouck说，事实上，高速交易可以减少股价的剧增或锐降。

JOEL HASBROUCK: “In normal circumstances, high-frequency traders act as market-makers. That means, they stand by passively waiting to buy or sell from whoever comes into the market needing to trade. In that capacity, they actually help stabilize the market.”
JOEL HASBROUCK说：“在通常的情况下，高频交易者起到做市商的作用。这就意味着，他们被动等待与任何需要进入股市交易的人进行买卖交易。在这种身份下，他们实际上有助于稳定市场。”

High-frequency traders use computers to follow stock price movements, buy shares and then sell them to another buyer, all within seconds. This is the opposite of long-term investing.  American and European officials are considering ways to limit high-frequency trading.  They say this may help protect against extreme market volatility in the future.
高频交易者使用电脑，跟踪股价的变动，购买股份并卖给买者，所有这些交易都在几秒钟内完成，这与长期投资相反。美国和欧洲官员正考虑限制高频交易的途径。他们表示，这可能有助于防止未来市场极端波动。