Lewis, Michael. Flash Boys. W.W. Norton, 2014.
SAT Vocabulary Words
Sensibility: a person's delicate sensitivity that makes them readily offended or shocked.
"scored a direct hit on Canadian sensibilities" (p. 28)
Staid: sedate, respectable, and unadventurous.
"The RBC Christmas party had always been a staid affair." (p. 28)
Behest: a person's orders or command.
Cronyism: the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.
"At the behest of the SEC, in turn responding to public protests about cronyism, the exchanges themselves, in 2005, went from being utilities owned by their members to public corporations run for profit." (p. 35)
Extemporaneous: spoken or done without preparation.
"'I'll just wing it....' this first extemporaneous presentation" (p. 77)
Glad-hand: (especially of a politician) greet or welcome warmly or with the appearance of warmth.
"It's always seemed to me that the things you need to do to influence change had to do with glad-handing. It just felt so phony." (p. 88)
Pernicious: having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.
Predation: the action of attacking or plundering.
"Reg NMS was intended to create equality of opportunity in the U.S. stock market. Instead it institutionalized a more pernicious inequality. A small class of insiders with the resources to create speed were not allowed to preview the market and trade on what they had seen." (p. 98)
"It wasn't high-frequency trading in itself that was pernicious; it was its predations." (p. 173)
Whence: from what place or source.
Midst: in the middle of.
"From whence came the regulation that made brokers feel comfortable not answering their phones in the midst of the 1987 crash?" (p. 100)
"jolted it back from whence it had come" (p. 195)
Loss leader: a product sold at a loss to attract customers.
"like bait in a trap - a loss leader... the goal was to spend as little as possible to acquire the necessary information - to make those initial trades, the bait, as small as possible." (p. 112)
Dutifully: in a conscientious or obedient manner.
"Gates was dutifully shocked: 'When I first saw the results of these tests, I thought: This is obviously not right. As far as he could tell, no one seemed much to care that 35,000 small investors could be so exposed to predation inside Wall Street's most prominent bank.' " (p. 116)
Schmuck: a foolish or contemptible person.
"I'm amazed that people don't ask the questions.... that they don't dig deeper. If some schmuck in West Chester, PA can figure it out, I've got to believe other people did, too." (p. 117)
Canvass: question (someone) in order to ascertain their opinion on something.
"Brad flew to Canada and sold his bosses on the idea of an RBC-led stock exchange. Then, in the fall of 2011, he canvassed a handful of the word's biggest money managers... and some of its most influential hedge fund managers..... They all had the same reaction." (p. 119)
Kingpin: a person or thing that is essential to the success of an organization or operation.
"There were maybe twenty-five guys I called kingpins - the people who actually knew what was going on." (p. 121)
Larceny: theft of personal property.
"It was riskless, larcenous, and legal - made so by Reg NMS. The way Brad described it, it was as if only one gambler were permitted to know the scores of last week's NFL games, with no one else aware of his knowledge. He places bets in the casino on every game and waits for other gamblers to take the other side of those bets." (p. 124)
On-board: go through procedures to effectively integrate (a new employee) into an organization or familiarize (a new customer or client) with one's products or services.
"managed on-boarding of all high-frequency clients to Crossfinder" (p. 125)
(Aid and) abet: encourage or assist (someone) to do something wrong, in particular, to commit a crime or other offense.
Infamous: well known for some bad quality or deed.
Rig: manage or conduct (something) fraudulently so as to produce a result or situation that is advantageous to a particular person.
"By mid-2007 Goldman's bond trading department was aiding and abetting a global financial crisis, most infamously by helping the Greek government rig its books and disguise its debt, and by designing subprime mortgages to fail, so that they might make money by betting against them." (p. 134)
Dissemble: conceal one's true motives, feelings, or beliefs.
Obfuscate: render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible.
"People on Wall Street were simply paid too much to lie and dissemble and obfuscate, and so every trusting feeling in the financial markets simply had to be followed by trailing doubt." (p. 156)
Glitch: a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment.
Queer: spoil or ruin (an agreement, event, or situation).
Systemic: relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part.
Quirk: a peculiar behavioral habit.
Exploit: make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource).
"The glitches at BATS and Nasdaq that queered the market for the benefit of HFT [high-frequency trading] weren't flukes but symptoms of a systemic problem... many other little market quirks there that were potentially being exploited" (p. 185)
Epithet: an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned; an epithet as a term of abuse.
"Irish epithet" (p. 191)
Fractious: (of a group or organization) difficult to control; unruly.
Tranquil: free from disturbance; calm.
Coherent: united as or forming a whole.
Political: relating to, affecting, or acting according to the interests of status or authority within an organization rather than matters of principle.
"The car remained fractious and unsettled. The car holding his other friends was tranquil." (p. 195)
"It was a mistake to think of a bank as a coherent entity. They were fractious, and intensely political." (p. 234)
Biff: strike (someone) roughly or sharply, usually with the fist.
Ill-defined: not having a clear description or limits; vague.
"He'd been biffed from an ill-defined career path onto a nother, clearer one." (p. 197)
Ape: imitate the behavior or manner of (someone or something), especially in an absurd or unthinking way.
"the many foreign stock markets, bond markets, options markets, and currency markets that had aped the U.S. stock market's structure" (p. 201)
Quixotic: exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
"a possibly quixotic attempt to fix a financial system that had become deeply screwed up" (p. 208)
Rebuff: reject (someone or something) in an abrupt or ungracious manner.
Overture: an approach or proposal made to someone with the aim of opening negotiations or establishing a relationship.
"Before IEX launched, Brad had rebuffed an overture from Intercontinental Exchange (known as ICE), the new owners of the New York Stock Exchange, to buy IEX for hundreds of millions of dollars - and walked away from the chance to get rick quick." (p. 213)
Arbiter: a person whose views or actions have great influence over trends in social behavior.
"The more the big banks sensed that Brad was being regarded by big investors as an arbiter of Wall Street behavior, the more carefully they confronted him." (p. 214)
Troll: walk; stroll.
"John Schwall had found him while trolling on LinkedIn and asked him to come for an interview." (p. 221)
Heuristic: proceeding to a solution by trial and error or by rules that are only loosely defined; a heuristic process or method.
Mumbo jumbo: language or ritual causing or intended to cause confusion or bewilderment.
"We have heuristic data ******** and other mumbo jumbo to determine our routing." (p. 232)
Distinct possibility: with a high probability
"the distinct possibility that investors in the stock market were about to wake up to what was being done to them, and to go to war against the people that were doing it" (p. 235)
Rich: (of a color, sound, smell, etc.) pleasantly deep or strong.
"Our system of justice is a poor tool for digging out a rich truth." (p. 246)
Weedy: (of a person) thin and physically weak in appearance.
"this monstrous feast was now being served to a collection of weedy technologists" (p. 247)
Double jeopardy: a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges and on the same facts, following a valid acquittal or conviction.
"To avoid double jeopardy, the Manhattan DA's office had found new crimes with which to charge Sarge for the same actions." (p. 258)
Jeopardy: danger arising from being on trial for a criminal offense.
Cross: oppose or stand in the way of (someone).
Incidentally: in an incidental manner; as a chance occurrence.
Circumstantial: (of evidence or a legal case) pointing indirectly toward someone's guilt but not conclusively proving it.
Pick: criticize someone in a petty way.
Vivid: producing powerful feelings or strong, clear images in the mind.
"Just like on the street, there is life in prison, and random people get there based on the jeopardy of the system. The prisons are filled by people who crossed the law, as well as by those who were incidentally and circumstantially picked and crushed by somebody else's agenda. On the other hand, as a vivid benefit, you become very much independent of material property and learn to appreciate very simple pleasures in life such as the sunlight and morning breeze." (p. 259)
Motley: incongruously varied in appearance or character; disparate.
Queue: a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.
"motley queues of bikes, cars, pickup trucks, Amish horse-drawn carts, and farm equipment" (p. 262)
Festoon: adorn (a place) with ribbons, garlands, or other decorations.
"The tower was 180 feet high, with no ladder, and festooned with electrical equipment." (p. 270)
"scored a direct hit on Canadian sensibilities" (p. 28)
Staid: sedate, respectable, and unadventurous.
"The RBC Christmas party had always been a staid affair." (p. 28)
Behest: a person's orders or command.
Cronyism: the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.
"At the behest of the SEC, in turn responding to public protests about cronyism, the exchanges themselves, in 2005, went from being utilities owned by their members to public corporations run for profit." (p. 35)
Extemporaneous: spoken or done without preparation.
"'I'll just wing it....' this first extemporaneous presentation" (p. 77)
Glad-hand: (especially of a politician) greet or welcome warmly or with the appearance of warmth.
"It's always seemed to me that the things you need to do to influence change had to do with glad-handing. It just felt so phony." (p. 88)
Pernicious: having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.
Predation: the action of attacking or plundering.
"Reg NMS was intended to create equality of opportunity in the U.S. stock market. Instead it institutionalized a more pernicious inequality. A small class of insiders with the resources to create speed were not allowed to preview the market and trade on what they had seen." (p. 98)
"It wasn't high-frequency trading in itself that was pernicious; it was its predations." (p. 173)
Whence: from what place or source.
Midst: in the middle of.
"From whence came the regulation that made brokers feel comfortable not answering their phones in the midst of the 1987 crash?" (p. 100)
"jolted it back from whence it had come" (p. 195)
Loss leader: a product sold at a loss to attract customers.
"like bait in a trap - a loss leader... the goal was to spend as little as possible to acquire the necessary information - to make those initial trades, the bait, as small as possible." (p. 112)
Dutifully: in a conscientious or obedient manner.
"Gates was dutifully shocked: 'When I first saw the results of these tests, I thought: This is obviously not right. As far as he could tell, no one seemed much to care that 35,000 small investors could be so exposed to predation inside Wall Street's most prominent bank.' " (p. 116)
Schmuck: a foolish or contemptible person.
"I'm amazed that people don't ask the questions.... that they don't dig deeper. If some schmuck in West Chester, PA can figure it out, I've got to believe other people did, too." (p. 117)
Canvass: question (someone) in order to ascertain their opinion on something.
"Brad flew to Canada and sold his bosses on the idea of an RBC-led stock exchange. Then, in the fall of 2011, he canvassed a handful of the word's biggest money managers... and some of its most influential hedge fund managers..... They all had the same reaction." (p. 119)
Kingpin: a person or thing that is essential to the success of an organization or operation.
"There were maybe twenty-five guys I called kingpins - the people who actually knew what was going on." (p. 121)
Larceny: theft of personal property.
"It was riskless, larcenous, and legal - made so by Reg NMS. The way Brad described it, it was as if only one gambler were permitted to know the scores of last week's NFL games, with no one else aware of his knowledge. He places bets in the casino on every game and waits for other gamblers to take the other side of those bets." (p. 124)
On-board: go through procedures to effectively integrate (a new employee) into an organization or familiarize (a new customer or client) with one's products or services.
"managed on-boarding of all high-frequency clients to Crossfinder" (p. 125)
(Aid and) abet: encourage or assist (someone) to do something wrong, in particular, to commit a crime or other offense.
Infamous: well known for some bad quality or deed.
Rig: manage or conduct (something) fraudulently so as to produce a result or situation that is advantageous to a particular person.
"By mid-2007 Goldman's bond trading department was aiding and abetting a global financial crisis, most infamously by helping the Greek government rig its books and disguise its debt, and by designing subprime mortgages to fail, so that they might make money by betting against them." (p. 134)
Dissemble: conceal one's true motives, feelings, or beliefs.
Obfuscate: render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible.
"People on Wall Street were simply paid too much to lie and dissemble and obfuscate, and so every trusting feeling in the financial markets simply had to be followed by trailing doubt." (p. 156)
Glitch: a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment.
Queer: spoil or ruin (an agreement, event, or situation).
Systemic: relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part.
Quirk: a peculiar behavioral habit.
Exploit: make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource).
"The glitches at BATS and Nasdaq that queered the market for the benefit of HFT [high-frequency trading] weren't flukes but symptoms of a systemic problem... many other little market quirks there that were potentially being exploited" (p. 185)
Epithet: an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned; an epithet as a term of abuse.
"Irish epithet" (p. 191)
Fractious: (of a group or organization) difficult to control; unruly.
Tranquil: free from disturbance; calm.
Coherent: united as or forming a whole.
Political: relating to, affecting, or acting according to the interests of status or authority within an organization rather than matters of principle.
"The car remained fractious and unsettled. The car holding his other friends was tranquil." (p. 195)
"It was a mistake to think of a bank as a coherent entity. They were fractious, and intensely political." (p. 234)
Biff: strike (someone) roughly or sharply, usually with the fist.
Ill-defined: not having a clear description or limits; vague.
"He'd been biffed from an ill-defined career path onto a nother, clearer one." (p. 197)
Ape: imitate the behavior or manner of (someone or something), especially in an absurd or unthinking way.
"the many foreign stock markets, bond markets, options markets, and currency markets that had aped the U.S. stock market's structure" (p. 201)
Quixotic: exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
"a possibly quixotic attempt to fix a financial system that had become deeply screwed up" (p. 208)
Rebuff: reject (someone or something) in an abrupt or ungracious manner.
Overture: an approach or proposal made to someone with the aim of opening negotiations or establishing a relationship.
"Before IEX launched, Brad had rebuffed an overture from Intercontinental Exchange (known as ICE), the new owners of the New York Stock Exchange, to buy IEX for hundreds of millions of dollars - and walked away from the chance to get rick quick." (p. 213)
Arbiter: a person whose views or actions have great influence over trends in social behavior.
"The more the big banks sensed that Brad was being regarded by big investors as an arbiter of Wall Street behavior, the more carefully they confronted him." (p. 214)
Troll: walk; stroll.
"John Schwall had found him while trolling on LinkedIn and asked him to come for an interview." (p. 221)
Heuristic: proceeding to a solution by trial and error or by rules that are only loosely defined; a heuristic process or method.
Mumbo jumbo: language or ritual causing or intended to cause confusion or bewilderment.
"We have heuristic data ******** and other mumbo jumbo to determine our routing." (p. 232)
Distinct possibility: with a high probability
"the distinct possibility that investors in the stock market were about to wake up to what was being done to them, and to go to war against the people that were doing it" (p. 235)
Rich: (of a color, sound, smell, etc.) pleasantly deep or strong.
"Our system of justice is a poor tool for digging out a rich truth." (p. 246)
Weedy: (of a person) thin and physically weak in appearance.
"this monstrous feast was now being served to a collection of weedy technologists" (p. 247)
Double jeopardy: a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges and on the same facts, following a valid acquittal or conviction.
"To avoid double jeopardy, the Manhattan DA's office had found new crimes with which to charge Sarge for the same actions." (p. 258)
Jeopardy: danger arising from being on trial for a criminal offense.
Cross: oppose or stand in the way of (someone).
Incidentally: in an incidental manner; as a chance occurrence.
Circumstantial: (of evidence or a legal case) pointing indirectly toward someone's guilt but not conclusively proving it.
Pick: criticize someone in a petty way.
Vivid: producing powerful feelings or strong, clear images in the mind.
"Just like on the street, there is life in prison, and random people get there based on the jeopardy of the system. The prisons are filled by people who crossed the law, as well as by those who were incidentally and circumstantially picked and crushed by somebody else's agenda. On the other hand, as a vivid benefit, you become very much independent of material property and learn to appreciate very simple pleasures in life such as the sunlight and morning breeze." (p. 259)
Motley: incongruously varied in appearance or character; disparate.
Queue: a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.
"motley queues of bikes, cars, pickup trucks, Amish horse-drawn carts, and farm equipment" (p. 262)
Festoon: adorn (a place) with ribbons, garlands, or other decorations.
"The tower was 180 feet high, with no ladder, and festooned with electrical equipment." (p. 270)
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