Disorderly Conduct: Day Traders and the Ideology of "Fair and Orderly Markets"

Abstract

This Article uses the day trading phenomenon as the focal point for an exploration of the relationship between ideas of fairness and orderliness in the regulation of the securities markets.Although day traders have historically been professional traders, 1 the term "day trader" now often refers to nonprofessional securities traders whose patterns of securities trading are different from those of ordinary investors. 2 Day traders may be characterized in one of two contrasting ways.On the one hand, they are investors who are empowered by technological developments to take charge of their own financial affairs; on the other they are vulnerable gamblers who are easy prey for unscrupulous broker-dealers.They are an example of the American Dream at work, or they are a terrible threat to the institution of American capitalism.In both stories they operate to some extent outside the established framework of the securities markets.Day traders do not fit our usual model of what a securities market professional looks like, nor