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Episode 396: A Father Of High-Speed Trading Thinks We Should Slow Down

Thomas Peterffy, shown here in 2010
Brendan Smialowski
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Thomas Peterffy, shown here in 2010

Thomas Peterffy's life story includes a typing robot, a proto-iPad, and a vast fortune he amassed as one of the first guys to use computers in financial markets.

On today's show, Peterffy tells us his story — and he explains why he's worried about the financial world he helped create.

Also on the show: We talk with Simone Foxman of Quartz about high-speed traders paying to get a key financial indicator two seconds before everybody else.

Note: Our interview with Thomas Petterfy originally posted last year. We learned of Peterffy's story from the book Automate This. Download the Planet Money iPhone App. Music: Calexico's "Two Silver Trees." Find us: Twitter/Facebook/Spotify/Tumblr.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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