Cowboys and Flash Boys are headed for a showdown on Chicago’s cattle futures market

The rise of high-powered computerised trading has drawn the ire of many traditional investors, who blame sudden and unexpected market moves on automated systems. Earlier this month, the association fired a letter off to Mr Duffy claiming the usefulness of CME’s cattle futures contracts, 16m of which changed hands last year, “is being called into question” because of high-frequency trading, in which traders place and cancel orders in nanoseconds. “We’re not going to be as fast in Amarillo, Texas as someone who’s right next to the server in Chicago,” said George Enloe of Amarillo Brokerage, a futures broker.

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