Wall Street ripoff 2.0: High speed trading and deep, dark pools

On July 31, Senator Edward Kaufman (D - Del.) published a scathing letter online calling on the Securities Exchange Commission to make key rule changes. Titled "A Level Playing Field for Investors," the letter asked the SEC to end the practice of "flash orders" which allow large financial exchanges to preview large orders to a select group of paying customers. Kaufmann's letter also asked the SEC to force so-called "dark pools" to reveal their inner workings.

Dark pools are groupings of shares that allow large institutions to more easily trade amongst themselves and also to mask large volume trades from the broad market and prevent rapid swings in share prices. The letter minced no words, implicitly comparing the current Wall Street situation to the profound injustice of racial segregation.