Scott Patterson

Scott Patterson (born December 29, 1969) is an American financial journalist and bestselling author. He is a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and author of Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System and The New York Times bestselling book The Quants.

Journalism Patterson has as Master of Arts and English degree from James Madison University. Patterson is a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering government regulation of the financial industry.

He has been described as the "go-to guy" for high-tech journalism, covering topics such as dark pools, flash crashes, algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading (HFT).

Patterson is an active critic of high-frequency trading, citing HFT as a major cause of market volatility and preferential treatment of select firms, yet acknowledging HFT role as market makers. He advocates for greater government oversight of the markets, arguing that regulatory systems have not kept pace with Wall Street innovation. He cites this gap as a key factor in the decline of public confidence in the markets. Patterson attributes the Flash Crash to a combination of all these issues.

Dark Pools On June 12, 2012, Patterson released Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System. The book expands on The Quants to show how the rise of algorithmic trading, artificial intelligence bots, and high-frequency trading have rigged the current stock market.

The Globe and Mail described Dark Pools as "the best book going on the issue." Patterson's work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNBC, Forbes, CNN, Fortune magazine, Rolling Stone, Scientific American, and the Financial Times, among others.