I'll be interviewing @maxdama this week for Manifold, although the episode may not release for some time because of a backlog. I learned from creating a Discord for Manifold that there are lots of financiers and quant traders who listen to the show. Max has written a lot of great essays over the years on HFT and quant trading. He's obviously an expert and good at explaining things. Please suggest questions for the show in this thread! Here's an example post from 2024, pointing out the benefits of HFT to financial markets and the general economy: Since Max wrote such a nice defense of HFT I should probably clarify my position on quant trading and related activity: 1. Well-functioning financial markets are important to a healthy economy and obviously they require capable participants. Most of the people I studied physics and math with ended up in finance - including a large number of the co-authors on my research papers! 2. Market activity isn't zero sum - it transmits information, provides liquidity, allows transfer of risk, etc. Market behavior itself is a deep subject that involves complex mathematics as well as psychological insight. 3. However, I think at a cultural level it's better to encourage talented young people to pursue MORE positive sum activities like scientific research, creation of new technologies, etc. If quant trading is the NUMBER ONE option for talented young people, something is wrong!

Ugh - got the wrong X handle. Should have been @maxfdama