New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/01/2011 -- It took a while for Adam Afshar, one of the leading high-frequency traders featured in Edgar Perez's The Speed Traders: An Insider's Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World (http://www.thespeedtraders.com), to believe that the markets were more or less efficient under normal circumstances and to realize that the analysts at most firms provided no value and sometimes a negative value. He says, “My first attempt at using the computer was to build a system to help traders have better information faster to enable them or their portfolio managers to make better decisions, a sort of hybrid system where the computers are helping the humans. But, in less than a year, I realized that discretionary human participation in selection, portfolio management, or trading was so deleterious that no amount of computer power or intellectual algorithms could mitigate it.”

He adds: “It’s very important to stress this point because if the system allows human discretion at any level (idea generation, portfolio management, or trading) and your machine does not have the human discretionary elements modeled correctly in its learning algorithm (which we claim is not possible at this time), what you are left with is simply a quantitative trader that uses certain calculations to assist his or her trading. It becomes difficult or even impossible to assess whether the success or failure was due to the calculations, formula, or algorithms. Although we can argue on the pros and cons of humans as traders, we have to agree that this method is not and cannot be scientific. It is not scientific because it is not possible to backtest a model that allows any discretionary human intervention. For example, if you have computers that are generating trades, but the execution is done by humans, then we would argue that you cannot determine whether the success or failure of the system was due to its robust artificial intelligence or to a very good trader, and there is no way of testing and duplicating the results. Therefore, we would argue that any backtesting becomes essentially void.”

Hyde Park Global Investments, Afshar’s firm, is an investment and trading firm that has developed an artificial intelligence system built primarily on genetic algorithms and other evolutionary models to identify mispricings, arbitrage, and patterns for many electronic financial markets and the robotic platform to monetize the opportunities. The firm, which trades its own capital so far, potentially will accept investments from outside sources.

The Speed Traders, http://www.TheSpeedTraders.com, published by McGraw-Hill Inc., is the most comprehensive, revealing work available on the most important development in trading in generations. High-frequency trading will no doubt play an ever larger role as computer technology advances and the global exchanges embrace fast electronic access. The Speed Traders explains everything there is to know about how today's high-frequency traders make millions—one cent at a time.”

Mr. Perez is widely regarded as the pre-eminent networker in the specialized area of high-frequency trading. He is the founder of Golden Networking and host of High-Frequency Trading Happy Hour business receptions (http://www.hfthappyhour.com) in New York City, which have drawn the world's top industry practitioners. He has been interviewed by CNBC, TheStreet.com, Bloomberg and Channel NewsAsia, and engaged as speaker at Harvard Business School's 17th Annual Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference, Columbia Business School's Career Management Center and Alumni Club of New York, High-Frequency Trading Leaders Forum 2011 (New York, Hong Kong, Chicago, Sao Paulo, Singapore), CFA Singapore, and Hong Kong Securities Institute, among others prestigious forums. Mr. Perez is one of the great business networkers and motivators on the lecture circuit; he is available worldwide for the following speaking engagements: Present and Future of High-Frequency Trading, The Real Story behind the "Flash Crash", Networking for Financial Executives, and Business Networking for Success.