封面文章：

Masters of the universe

The job of capital markets(资本市场) is to process information so that saving flow to the best projects and firms. That makes high finance(高级金融) sound simple.资本市场的工作是处理信息，这样资金就能流向最好的项目和公司，这令高级金融听起来好像很简单。

capital有首都省会的意思，也有资金、大资本家的意思，也能表示重要的。capital market就是资本市场

in reality it is dynamic and intoxicating(醉人的、使人兴奋的). It reflects a changing world.Today’s markets,for instance,are grappling with a trade war and low interest rates(利率).事实上，它是动态且令人陶醉的，它反映了一个变化中的世界。例如，现在的市场正在努力应对贸易战和低利率。are grappling with中grappling是grapple的ing形式，意思是抓住、格斗，are grappling with 就是与…在格斗。

But it also reflects changes within finance,which constantly reinvents itself in a perpetual struggle to gain a competitive edge.

但是它也反映了金融业的改变，为了在长期的 struggle 中占据 competitive edge(竞争优势)，金融业不断地进行reinvents itself(自我改造)

As our Briefing reports,the latest revolution is in full swing,正如我们的简讯报道的一样，最新的革命正在full swing全面展开

Machines are taking control of investing——not just the humdrum buying and selling of securities,but also the commanding heights of monitoring the economy and allocating capital.

机器正在控制investing投资(invent)，不仅仅是humdrum买卖securities，而且占据了监控金融和分配资本(capital)的控制制高点。

• humdrum是单调的，乏味的，无聊的。
• invent投资
• securities 是security的复数，security作名词是安全，还有一个意思是证券、抵押品。复数就是证券的意思

Funds run by computers that follow rules set by humans account for 35% of America’s stockmarket,60% of institutional equity assets and 60% of trading activity.

人类设置规则的计算机操控的资金运行占到35%的美国stockmarket股市，60%的工业， 60%的机构equity assets股权资产 和 60%的交易活动。

New artificial-intelligence programs are also writing their own investing rules,in ways their human masters only partly understand.

新的人工智能程序也在书写着人类只能理解部分的投资规则

Industries from pizza-delivery to Hollywood are being changed by technology,but finance is unique becase it can exert voting power over firms,redistribute wealth and case mayhem in economy.

从披萨快递到好莱坞这些行业都被技术所改变，但金融不是，因为金融可以给予各家公司投票权，以重新分配财富并在金融中制造mayhem(混乱)

Because it deals in huge sums,finance has always had the cash to adopt breakthroughs early.The first transatlantic cable,completed in 1866,carried cotton prices between Liverpoll and New York.

因为巨额的交易，金融业总是有钱去最早突破, 第一条transatlantic(横渡大西洋的)电缆在1866年完成，就是用作在iverpoll和纽约之间传输棉花的价格

Wall street analysts were early devotees of spreadsheet software,such as Excel,in the 1980s.

在1980年代，华尔街的分析师就是最早表格分析软件如Excel的devotees(信徒，爱好者)

Since then,computers have conquered swaths of the financial industry.

从那以后，计算机conquer的金融业大片swath。这里是现在完成时，表示之前发生，对现在有影响

First to go was the chore of “executing” buy and sell orders.Visit a trading floor today and you will hear the hum of servers,not the roar of traders.

首先做的是，执行买卖订单。现在去交易floor大厅，你会听到服务器的hum，而不是交易员的roar、

High-frequency trading exploits tiny differences in prices of similar securities,using a barrage of transactions.

这里不知道怎么翻译，高频交易exploits利用类似证券之间的微笑价格差，？？？啥意思

In the past decade computer have graduated to running portfolios.Exchange-traded funds(ETFS) and mutual funds automatically track indices of shares and bonds.

在过去的十年里，计算机graduate逐渐发展到运行portfolios(投资组合)，，交易基金和mutual共同基金自动地跟踪股票和bond证券indice指数

Last month these vehicles had $4.3trn invested in American equities,exceeding the sums actively run by humans for teh first time.

上个月，这些工具在美国equities股票投资了4.3万亿美元，首次超过了人类运作的资本。

equities 股票（equity的复数） equity :公平，公正；衡平法；普通股；抵押资产的净值

A strategy known as smart-beat isolates a statistical characteristic——volatility,say——and loads up on securities that exhibit it.

一种被称为只能节拍的strategy分理出一种统计特征——波动性，并且大量买入展现出这些特征的证券。

volatility 活泼的，易变的，波动性、挥发性,securities that exhibit it 是定语从句

An elite of quantitative hedge funds,most of them on Americ’s east coast,uses complex black-box mathematics to invest some #1trn.

xxx的精英们，他们大多在美国东海岸，用复杂的黑箱一样的数学投资了一万亿

As machines prove themselves in equities and derivatives,they are growing in debt markets,too.

随着机器在 equities 股票和derivatives衍生品领域证明自己，它们在债券市场也在增长。

All the while,computers are gaining autonomy.Software programs using AI devise their own strategies without needing human guidance.

同时，计算机也在获取自治。软件用AI devise设计他们自己的策略而不需要人的指导

Some hedgefunders are sceptical about AI but,as processing power grows, so do its abilities.

but一些hedgefunders 对AI持sceptical怀疑态度，但随着处理能力的增长，so do its abilities(他的能力也是如此)

so do，也一样 so do i就是俺也一样

And consider the flow of information,the lifeblood of markets.Human fund managers read reports and meet firms under strict insider-trading and disclosure laws.

信息流就像市场的lifeblood一样重要，基金管理经理阅读报告，在严格的内部交易和信息披露法下开会

There are designed to control what is in the public domain and ensure everyone has equal access to it.Now an almost infinite supply of new data and processing power is creating novel ways to assess investments.

他们的目的是设计控制什么是公共区域的信息并且确保每个人都平等的读取它。现在几乎无限的数据和处理能力正在创造一种novel新奇的的方法去assess investment评估投资

For example,some fund try to use satellites to track retailers’ car parls,and scrape inflation data from e-commerce sites.Eventually they could have fresher information about firms than even their boards do.

例如，一些基金尝试用卫星追踪retailer的停车场，从电商网站scrape搜刮 inflation通胀数据，最终，他们会获取比董事会更新鲜的公司数据。这里的 about firms 是定语

待续更新……