How A High Freak Algo Halted Bond Trading For 5 Seconds During Friday's Payrolls Release

I am fascinated by how these computer algorithms trade in the market. They are usually hidden hence making it difficult ot prosecute since no one knows how they work in the market

Here is the criminal action from Friday, in pretty charts, courtesy of Nanex:
On January 10, 2013, about 8/10ths of a second before the Labor Department released the widely anticipated Employment Situation Report, trading activity exploded in Treasury futures, sending the prices much higher in less than 1/10th of a second. The buying activity overwhelmed the 5-Year T-Note market causing a stop logic circuit breaker to trip and shut down trading for 5 seconds. During the halt in 5-Year T-Note futures, the news was officially released in Washington, D.C. - meaning that anyone wanting to trade on that news, would have to wait until the halt was lifted almost 4 seconds later (4,000,000 microseconds in high frequency trading lingo).

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