Trading algorithms bring benefits but fears of accidents grow - FT.com

We are all'algos' now: traders at work in the New York Stock Exchange in May When Bruce Bittles first started trading in the 1960s, the US stock market was a largely human affair. Exchange floors were the chaotic maelstrom of shouts, frantic phone calls and finger waving, later made famous by 1980s films such as Wall Street and Trading Places. But now the machines have taken over. Nasdaq became the world's first electronic stock market when it opened its doors in 1971, but since then, the trading world has been revolutionised several times over. The old bourses and trading pits now are largely shuttered.