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John Balafoutas

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John Balafoutas is currently reading

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

by Michael Lewis

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John Balafoutas said: " *** The book that I will be reviewing for my formal book review is Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis. Lewis is also the author of The Big Short, another book about economics, which has been made into a movie. Flash Boys is a non-fiction book that dives in *** The book that I will be reviewing for my formal book review is Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis. Lewis is also the author of The Big Short, another book about economics, which has been made into a movie. Flash Boys is a non-fiction book that dives into the real actions in the stock market. In the beginning, the author introduces the main character, Brad Katsuyama, and his journey into learning how the stock market really works. Prior to Brad’s new understanding, Lewis describes the stock market in the eyes of an everyday person. In other words, buy low and sell high. “The world clings to its old mental picture of the stock market because it’s comforting; because it’s so hard to draw a picture of what has replaced it; and because the few people able to draw it for you have no interest in doing so.” However, as Brad discovers, this is not always what truly occurs. While trading on the stock market, Brad attempts to buy a stock for a fixed price, but at the very last second, the price would change, resulting in a loss. Later on in the book, Brad realized that the problem was High Frequency Trading. HFT is when traders take advantage of microseconds, even nanoseconds to earn a profit off of other investors. When Brad realizes this he is stunned, “The U.S. financial markets had always been either corrupt or about to be corrupted.” In this new world of computers, Brad has to figure out how to combat the issue and even the playing field. “People no longer are responsible for what happens in the market, because computers make all the decisions.” The theme of this book for me was that, do not believe everything you see. I feel that this is a fitting theme for this book because not only was the system flawed, large corporations knew about the flaw and used it to make profits. All in all, this book was interesting and informative because it aided to describe what the stock market is today. Also, through the introduction of characters, I was always interested in their actions and how they attempted to handle the flawed situation. In addition, this book suggested that in the future, there will be no people trading in the stock market, just computers. Personally I feel that this has already happened as seen through the use of High Frequency Trading units and how fractions of a second can dictate if you make a profit or take a loss. However, I feel that the book leaves out descriptions of its key economic terms, thus making it harder for me to understand. This book affected me by opening my eyes to the reality of the stock market. My opinions about the market have remained fairly the same, however, going forward I will be sure to be careful and always check for price changes. I look forward to learning more about the stock market, due to my future career in business and economics. Overall, I was happy with this book and would recommend it to others interested in economics, the stock market, or business. ...more "

progress:

(page 320 of 304)
"Just finished reading the book, Flash Boys, and will have a book review coming soon." — Mar 15, 2018 03:54PM

Mar 15, 2018 04:30PM · see review

John Balafoutas is currently reading

Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism

by Mark R. Levin

bookshelves: books-i-want-to-read, currently-reading

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(page 272 of 274)
— May 11, 2018 10:42AM

Jan 19, 2018 11:48AM

John Balafoutas is currently reading

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett (Goodreads Author)

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John Balafoutas said: " This is my final summery.

As I continue to read I find myself more and more split about the ending. The happy side is quite present. When Eugenia Phelan contacted Skeeter about the needed due date I was almost sure that she would not be able to inter This is my final summery.

As I continue to read I find myself more and more split about the ending. The happy side is quite present. When Eugenia Phelan contacted Skeeter about the needed due date I was almost sure that she would not be able to interview all the maids on time. However, Mrs. Skeeter took action and was able to finish all her interviews and sent the book in on time. In the end the book actually gets published. This is not only a big deal for Skeeter and the maids. The reason for this is that this book will be published across the country and explain how maids are truly treated in the current segregated south. I found the incorporation of the Hilly situation genius. By incorporating this into the novel, Hilly would never expose their town as the town it was based on to protect her identity. If she would reveal this information, Hilly would be known as the woman who “ate negro poop.” However I was slightly mad at the ending for the maids. Hilly, thinking she was the one in the book decided to take action at Aibileen and Minny. For Aibileen, Hilly accused her of stealing silver and threatens to call the police if it not returned. This was downright horrible in my opinion because it totally paints Aibileen as a horrible person and not the true caring person she really is. In the end, Hilly ends up getting Aibileen fired from her job and she is forced to leave. In addition, Leroy, Minny’s abusive husband, is fired from his job, because of Hilly, but is told that it was because of Minny. As a result, Leroy locked Minnyn into the bathroom and threatened to burn the house down! Minny later escapes and calls for help at a local gas station. Minny calls Aibileen and promises to leave Leroy for good. Even though this may look bad and that the women are losing their income, there is a silver lining. Skeeter tells both Minny and Aibileen that the books are selling and that more money is coming in the near future. This is where I got a little sad due to that fact that Skeeter has decided to take a writing job in New York City. The group, that has single handedly defied segregation and wrote a book about, is being split up. Although this is say, I understand the outcome. Skeeter, following the end of her relationship with stuart, needed a new beginning and the Big Apple was just the right start. In the end, everything ended how it was supposed to and I was thrilled to see how the characters truly developed their bond from the beginning to the end of the book. Not only did this group defy the stereotypical norm of the racist south, they tried together and fought back. “The Help” was truly an inspirational book to me and to the time period of the civil rights movement. ...more "

progress:

(page 372 of 451)
"I can't believe that Minny admitted to baking a pie with literal poop for Hilly. The drama in this book is very intense and relates to highschool. Also good job to Mrs.Celia for stepping up to Hilly after the group benefit" — May 10, 2018 11:53AM

May 11, 2018 07:41PM · see review

See all 4 books that John is reading…