Goldman Warns the Rise of the Machines Leaves Markets Exposed

High-frequency traders are a threat to markets as they “know the price of everything and the value of nothing,” according to Goldman Sachs, quoting Oscar Wilde.

Computers are prized for their ability to process massive amounts of data better than humans. But it’s their relative inability to process a complex world that might lead machines to worry that humans know something they don’t when markets go haywire -- and exit a situation in which they don’t have the upper hand, wrote strategists led by co-Chief Markets Economist Charles Himmelberg in a note.