# Quote — Michael Lewis, Flash Boys

> The relationship of the big Wall Street banks to the high frequency traders, when you think about it, was a bit like the relationship of the entire society to the big Wall Street banks. When things went well, the HFT guys took most of the gains; when things went badly, the HFT guys vanished and the banks took the losses.

- Author: [Michael Lewis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis.md)
- Book: [Flash Boys](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys.md)
- Page: 264
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Lewis_(author)#Flash_Boys_(2014)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys/the-relationship-of-the

## More from this book

> He now suspected that every human being who knew how high-frequency traders made money was making too much money doing it to stop and explain what was going on.

p. 55 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys/he-now-suspected.md)

> Thus the only Goldman Sachs employee arrested by the FBI in the aftermath of a financial crisis Goldman had done so much to fuel was the employee Goldman asked the FBI to arrest.

p. 148 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys/thus-the-only.md)

> "Liquidity" was one of those words Wall Street people threw around when they wanted the conversation to end, and for brains to go dead, and for all questioning to cease.

p. 108 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys/liquidity-was-one.md)