Thanks to slumping markets, investment banks are shedding many of their highly-paid traders. When markets recover, the banks might be tempted to replace them with rather cheaper talent. One alternative has been around for a while but has yet to catch on: autonomous trading agents-computers programmed to act like the human version without such pesky costs as holidays, lunch breaks or bonuses. Program trading has, of course, been done before; some blamed the 1987 stockmarket crash on computers instructed with simple decision-making rules. But robots can be smarter than that.
Dave Cliff, a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Bristol, England, has been creating trading robots for seven years. In computer simulations he lets them evolve genetically , and so allows them to adapt and fit models of real-world financial markets. His experiments have suggested that a redesign of some markets could lead to greater efficiency. Last year, a research group at IBM showed that Mr Cliffs artificial traders could consistently beat the human variety, in various kinds of market. Nearly all take the shape of an auction. One well-known type is the English auction, familiar to patrons of the salesrooms of Christies and Sothebys, where sellers keep mum on their offer price, and buyers increase their bids by stages until only one remains.
At the other extreme is the Dutch auction, familiar to 17th-century tulip-traders in the Netherlands as well as to bidders for American Treasury bonds. Here, buyers remain silent, and a seller reduces his price until it is accepted. Most markets for shares, commodities, foreign exchange and derivatives are a hybrid of these two types: buyers and sellers can announce their bid or offer prices at any time, and deals are constantly being closed, a so-called continuous double auction .
Mr Cliffs novel idea was to apply his evolutionary computer programs to marketplaces themselves. Why not, he thought, try and see what types of auction would let traders converge most quickly towards an equilibrium price? The results were surprising. In his models, auctions that let buyers and sellers bid at any time like most of todays financial exchanges were less efficient than ones that required relatively more bids from either buyers or sellers. These evolved auctions also withstood big market shocks, such as crashes and panics, better than todays real-world versions. Mr Cliffs most recent results, which will be presented in Sydney, Australia, on December 10th, show that the best type of auction for any market depends crucially on even slight differences in the number of buyers and sellers. www.examda.com
Bank of America has been investigating these new auctions, along with robotic traders, for possible use in electronic exchanges. The hope is that todays financial auctions and online marketplaces might work better by becoming more like their English and Dutch forebears. But what to call such multi-ethnic hybrids? Heres introducing the Cliffhanger .
1. The passage is mainly__________.
A. a review of two kinds of auctions
B. an introduction of trading robots
C. a survey of the trading market
D. about trading alternatives
2. Which of the following is true according to the text?
A. Davids robot traders have now been used in real-world markets.
B. Robot traders can evolve like creatures.
C. There is room for improvement in efficiency in trading markets.
D. The English auction is the most popular trading form.
3. If you were trading American Treasury bonds, you would most likely take the trading form of ___________.
A. the English auction
B. the continuous double auction
C. the Dutch auction
D. the evolved auction
4. We can infer from the text that______________.
A. existing auctions can not withstand market shocks
B. the Dutch auction is better than the continuous double auction
C. its hard for traders to reach an equilibrium price
D. the best type of auction takes place when the number of the buyers is equal to that of sellers
5. Toward robot traders, the writers attitude can be said to be__________.
A. biased
B. objective
C. pessimistic
D. optimistic
双语美文精选:但愿人长久,千里共婵娟
生命可以是一座玫瑰花园
双语:15个国家英文名称的浪漫解读
人生哲理:多一点开心 少一点抱怨
“母亲”这个伟大的职业(双语)
精选英语美文阅读:山居秋暝
世界上最美丽的英文3
英语美文:有良师乃人生之幸(双语)
英语晨读:潘多拉
浪漫英文情书精选:I'm So Sorry, Baby对不起宝贝
英语名篇名段背诵精华27
英语散文:If I were a Boy Again
精选英语美文阅读:生活的涟漪
精选英语美文阅读:一只猫/一个未来
双语阅读:美丽的微笑
英语晨读:思考生活
美文欣赏:海边漫步
浪漫英文情书精选:Keep You Forever永远温存着你
英语美文30篇系列之24
英语美文:生命这个奇迹
双语:给你逃离“舒适区”的六个理由
诗歌:放慢你的舞步
英语美文:一双丝袜(有声)
浪漫英文情书精选:My Everything我的一切
美文欣赏:真正贫穷的生活(双语)
英语晨读:忘忧树
26个英文字母蕴含的人生哲理
英语晨读:金窗
英语美文:艰难岁月也要满怀感恩之心(双语)
英语标准美文51
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |