Comic #3803: trading

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Description

Here's a transcription of the comic's text:

Panel 1:
Historically, if you have more pricing information than someone else, you can make a profit.
Give me five rocks for one meat.
Deal.
SUCKER! I sell five rocks for two meats in next cave over.

Panel 2:
Over time, traders became sophisticated.
When the ship nears harbor, use this flag system to signal my agent on the dock.
We shall corner the silk neckerchief market!

Panel 3:
Once the computer was developed a new form of competition arose.
Straight line from New York to Chicago so traders have to use it, or be 1.8 milliseconds behind the competition.
And people say Americans don’t build big things anymore!

Panel 4:
In a sense, this is insider trading, in that only certain people can afford the speed.
It is NOT unfair! Any mom and pop hedge fund operator can buy their own bandwidth on a secret short-term communication monopoly!

Panel 5:
Economists proposed rules to fix the problem.
How about making every transaction take a full ten seconds?

Panel 6:
So I guess you want brokers to enjoy femtosecond-accurate pricing data!

Panel 7:
When that failed, we took a new course.
Instead of fixing the problem, we harness it.
Stock trades may ONLY be transmitted using room temperature supercomputers.

Panel 8:
Once a new tech was solved, the rules changed.
You may only trade via hypersonic passenger jets.
All traders must be based on Mars.
Electrons made via fusion reactors may be used for stock transmission.

Panel 9:
By the time trading firms realized what we were up to, it was too late.
Oh god, we’ve moved to a post-scarcity society! I can’t use money to buy status anymore!

Panel 10:
Fortunately, the problem worked itself out.
Give me status, plebeians!

Let me know if you need any more help!