Sense on Cents

I will readily admit I am not a big fan of CNBC’s Jim Cramer. Perhaps it is more Jim Cramer’s style than his substance but for whatever reasons, I very rarely watch his show or follow his work.

I will also readily admit I am a HUGE fan of Themis Trading’s Joe Saluzzi. Based upon both style and substance, Joe Saluzzi, his sidekick Sal Arnuk and the team at Themis Trading are all worthy of immediate elevation into the upper echelon of the Sense on Cents Hall of Fame.

While a huge fan of Joe, Sal and Themis, and less a fan of Cramer, how uncanny that I am here this morning touting all of them for promoting real ‘sense on cents’ in defining the true nature of our equity exchanges.

Joe and Sal highlighted the other day at the Themis Trading site, Jim Cramer Mad Money Monologue, Friday July 8th, 2011,

Who made the statements this past week?

Powerful managers use ultra ETF’s of mass destruction to push stocks around.

Performance of stocks has become disconnected from performance of the underlying companies.

If you go swimming in this market, there is no lifeguard on duty.

The SEC, who favors high frequency traders, is not doing their job protecting the little guys.

Our markets have been captured by high frequency traders, and the EXCHANGES.

The SEC has approved all kinds of innovations that make the market less legitimate, and less safe.

The SEC has approved all kinds of things that make the markets more dangerous, and more difficult for you to save money for your kids.

If you think the SEC has your back, think again.

If you think the Exchanges are on your side, think again.

In the old days Exchanges used to be non-profit; now they want their large institutional hedge funds that trade high frequency to make money, because that’s how they make money.

Until you get the SEC to start looking at the markets through the prism of your IRA or 401k or 529 plans instead of through a prism of market manipulators, don’t be surprised by any outrage or flash crash. It can happen again.

Did you guess the guys at Themis Trading? If you did you would be wrong. We did make those statements in almost 160 other weeks, but in this past week it was not us. Rather, those statements were made by CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Mad Money this past Friday evening. It was his 5-minute opening monologue, and you can watch it here.

Giving credit where it is due, major props to Jim Cramer for this monologue. He hits hard on an element of what I have long defined as Wall Street-Washington incest.

Joe Saluzzi may not need any more props but I will give them to him regardless. Joe and Sal are ‘the men in the arena’ who continually fight the good fight on behalf of all of us who have a real appreciation for truth, transparency, and integrity in our markets.

Be thankful there are guys like Joe and Sal in America. We need more like them.

In regard to the exchanges, having made their bed with their high frequency consorts, they can now lie there and watch their daily trading volumes plummet as more and more Americans choose not to play the game. Perhaps I should have said, these Americans have chosen to ‘navigate accordingly‘,… as should you.

Larry Doyle

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I have no affiliation or business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets, our economy, and our political realm so that meaningful investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 at 5:34 AM and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.