Kim Janssen Chicago Tribune
In less time than it takes you to read this sentence, Michael Coscia could make more money than most Americans earn in an 8-hour day.
If you blinked, you miss it.
But if you slowed down time, sliced a second into a thousand tiny parts, and looked at a span of just 65 milliseconds — about as long as it takes a hummingbird to flap its wings once — you’d see the unmistakable evidence of a sophisticated criminal at work, the feds say.
That’s because Coscia, 53, was allegedly a “spoofer,” a high-frequency trader who used computer algorithms to rip off rivals in markets where business is conducted at the speed of light.
His scam using huge spoof orders for commodities futures contracts to goose prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange netted him $1.6 million in just three months, according to a federal indictment, helping fund an anonymous but comfortable lifestyle that included a waterfront New Jersey mansion.
Coscia, of Rumson, N.J., is due to find himself thrust into the public eye Monday when he becomes the first criminal defendant tried under anti-spoofing legislation included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-spoofing-trader-trial-1025-biz-20151023-story.html
