Wall Street, mid-2007; Brad Katsuyama worked as a stock trader for the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a big player in the U.S. banking industry, but nobody on Wall Street knew them. Katsuyama's troubles started when RBC paid $100 million for an electronic-trading firm, Carlin Financial. Before the acquisition, Katsuyama would see on his screen 10,000 shares of Intel at $22, which meant he could buy 10,000 shares of Intel at $22 a share. He only needed to press a button to complete the trade...

Wall Street, mid-2007; Brad Katsuyama worked as a stock trader for the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a big player in the U.S. banking industry, but nobody on Wall Street knew them. Katsuyama's troubles started when RBC paid $100 million for an electronic-trading firm, Carlin Financial. Before the acquisition, Katsuyama would see on his screen 10,000 shares of Intel at $22, which meant he could buy 10,000 shares of Intel at $22 a share. He only needed to press a button to complete the trade...