TY - JOUR

T1 - Cognition in High-Frequency Trading

T2 - The Costs of Consciousness and the Limits of Automation

AU - Beverungen, Armin

AU - Lange, Ann Christina

PY - 2018/11/1

Y1 - 2018/11/1

N2 - Certain strands of contemporary media theory are concerned with the ways in which computational environments exploit the ‘missing half-second’ of human perception and thereby influence, control or exploit humans at an affective level. The ‘technological unconscious’ of our times is often understood to work at this affective level, and high-frequency trading is regularly provided as a primary illustrative example of the contagious dynamics it produces. We challenge and complicate this account of the relation between consciousness, affect and media technologies by drawing on the recent work of N. Katherine Hayles and by focusing in detail on the ways in which the ‘costs of consciousness’ are accounted for and negotiated in high-frequency trading. We suggest that traders actively develop modes of awareness accounting for the costs of consciousness, and that the necessary ‘stupidity’ of high-frequency trading algorithms as well as competition pose limits to the full automation of financial markets.

AB - Certain strands of contemporary media theory are concerned with the ways in which computational environments exploit the ‘missing half-second’ of human perception and thereby influence, control or exploit humans at an affective level. The ‘technological unconscious’ of our times is often understood to work at this affective level, and high-frequency trading is regularly provided as a primary illustrative example of the contagious dynamics it produces. We challenge and complicate this account of the relation between consciousness, affect and media technologies by drawing on the recent work of N. Katherine Hayles and by focusing in detail on the ways in which the ‘costs of consciousness’ are accounted for and negotiated in high-frequency trading. We suggest that traders actively develop modes of awareness accounting for the costs of consciousness, and that the necessary ‘stupidity’ of high-frequency trading algorithms as well as competition pose limits to the full automation of financial markets.

KW - affect

KW - automation

KW - cognition

KW - financial markets

KW - high-frequency trading

KW - Science and Technology Studies

KW - sociology of finance

KW - media studies

KW - Digital media

KW - Media and communication studies

UR - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0263276418758906

U2 - 10.1177/0263276418758906

DO - 10.1177/0263276418758906

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85054762790

VL - 35

SP - 75

EP - 95

JO - Theory, Culture and Society

JF - Theory, Culture and Society

SN - 0263-2764

IS - 6

ER -