Within ten years, but ill also tell you why it probably wont happen. Real money. This is real money. You are the most important part of the show, so tell me what is on your mind by tweeting or go to facebook. Com. And starting tonight this show is an hour every weeknight, so fix your dvr and text your friends to tell them youll be late for dinner. The battle over high freak went trading is spreading and gaining force. The latest was a lawsuit filed by the city in rhode island. Defendants include the New York Stock Exchange nasdaq, Jpmorgan Chase and banc of america. It claims they provided details of their clients offers to buy or sell stocks to highspeed training firms which then profited at the expense of providence and its investment funds. The suit says the alleged scheme allowed some Market Players to get nonpublic data that gave them an informational advantage. Now, the claims that providence is making will obviously have to be proved, but the suit is just the latest blow against a group of traders who came to dominate the stock market. It now accounts for half of the 7 billion shares of stock traded ever day. Most americans dont understand how it works. You wouldnt be expected to, and thats a problem because the stock market is where so much of your 401k, pension or mutual fund is invested. Everyone from the Justice Department to the fbi, to the securities and Exchange Commission are looking into highspeed trading. They want to know if its creating an unfair advantage for investors who can afford to invest in sophisticated Computer Systems that use complicated formulas for trading. All of this happens in thousands of a second without any human decisions. Now the publics worries have been fanned by the new Michael Lewis book called flash boys, and assertion that the u. S. Stock market is rigged, by the way rigged is also used several times in the lawsuit. They quote, rigged the market and manipulated the market. Again, that is a climb that providence will have to prove. In the meantime its important to say that words like rigged dont describe what is going on in todays stock market. All of this week, were taking a long, hard look at the facts behind High Frequency trading. Each day were going to exam min different aspects, and hear a variety of opinions. Tonight i want to give you a sense of just how much the market has undergone a complete transformation as speed has become the holy grail, and to start our story lets go back to december of last year. Back on december 5th, 2013, something remarkable happened at the closing bell. On that day, a Company Released its Earnings Report milliseconds after 4 00 pm that report fell short of expectations. High Frequency Trading Computers instandingly sold 14,000 shares of the stock at about 121 each, totaling 1. 6 million worth of stock. At 4 00 and not quite one second, the stock closed at 118 a share, losing 3 in less than a second. In that rapid sellout, within the one second, it is estimated that highfrequency traders could have pocketed as much as 28,000. It was a feet only they could have pulled off and its all per fektdly legal. High frequency traders operating near the speed of light have turned what happens own the floor of the new york stock theater. The only opinions in the time frames of less than half a second are these machines. The founder, is a critic of High Frequency trading. It has now grown to hundreds of firms spread across the globe. High frequency trading is so fast its not measured in seconds, its measured in milliseconds. It takes 300 milliseconds, just to blink, 200 milliseconds just to recognize a written word. It takes a high speed trader one single millisecond. So forget about traditional measures. These days if you are not trading at those speeds, you are toast. And High Frequency traders have their own special sauce. That is a complicated formula called a black box algorithm, which can cost anywhere from half a Million Dollars to 10 million each. They scour the market for queues. They digest and react to key words in earnings releases, twitter feeds, and news reports all in the blank of an eye. Often generating profits of just a fraction of a penny per trade. If you have an code that can do that, literally hundreds of thousands and millions of times per day, it prints money. High frequency trading firms some of them have even bragged in the press they have never had a losing day. They set prices for everything that is traded. Orange juice to the price of mortgages, and some people think there is nothing to worry about, like the former chief economist of the securities and Exchange Commission who is now an industry lobbyist. Are the markets broken . I would say absolutely not. I can think back 150 years ago when the telegraph was developed, you had many of the same issues. For mom and pop focusing on the long term, being an investor, ultimately you are okay. But others say High Frequency traders have an unfair advantage. Mark outgoing commissioner of the Futures Trading Commission calls traders who use High Frequency trading programs cheetahs, pun intended. He argues they are running wild in the market. Technology is great. I dont want technology out of markets, but currently there are no rules or regulations, zero. Zipo, nada, on chee das, and im concerned that they may be royaling a market. Regulated fors say High Frequency trading contributed to a flash crash in 2010 where the dow jones fell a shocking 1,000 points in 5 minutes, briefly erasing a trillion dollars in market value only to recover a fie minutes later. On april 23rd, 2013, High Frequency trading algorithms reacted to a hacked Associated Press twitter account which said president obama had been injured in an explosion. It created a flash crash of several millions, that reraises billion dollarses from the s p 500 before it rebounded. The real fear is next time the market wont recover. The complexity of High Frequency trading makes it hard for some of us to understand. By getting in the miding of trades, High Frequency traders are charging the equivalent of a slight tax or toll on every transaction, and that tax is paid by the Institutional Investors who manage your money. Taken individually that toll is very small, but taken together, the critics say the amounts add up to deaths by a thousand cuts. You wont believe the amount of money that High Frequency traders are spending just to times. And that could be hundreds of millions of dollars. Tomorrow night on flash trading, im talking about lasers, fiber optics, even a transatlantic air bridge in its neverending quest for speed, well see why wall street has been willing to pay a lot to make a lot. A tiny tech start up giant, ill tell you what is at stake in this david versus goliath battle that could change how americans watch tv forever. Plus the fate of the xl pipeline could come down to a nebras nebraska prairie. And later ill help you what the debate that divides america, unites the critics, a reason to watch Al Jazeera America the standout Television Event borderland, is gritty honesty. A lot of people dont have a clue what goes on down here, the only way to find out, is to see it yourselves. Taking viewers beyond the debate. Dont miss Al Jazeera Americas critically acclaimed series borderland on Al Jazeera America also available on demand well its official. Xfinity watchathon week was the biggest week in television history. But just when you thought it was over. What now . With xfinity on demand you can always watch the latest episodes of tvs hottest shows. Good news. Like hannibal. Chicago fire. And bates motel. The day after they air. Xfinity on demand. All the latest episodes. All included with your service. Its like hifiving your eyeballs. Xfinity. The future of awesome. The death toll could be much higher than anyone known. Posing as a buyer. People ready then. Mr. President who should answer for those people the future of television could lie with a Crafty Little tech startup that has found a way to beam broadcast tv live to your computer without buying an expensive cable package. It is called aereo, and is ruffling a lot of have feathers with the big tv companies. They are doing everything they can to stop the Little Company that has hundreds of thousands of subscribers. It has been taken all the way to the Supreme Court. Before we get into the implications of what this could mean, Patricia Sabga shows us what it really is. Its broadcast tvs worth nightmare. Aereo. Its a subscription service, that basically leases out a hightech version of the rabbit ears that used to sit on top of your television. Only they are teeny tiny. The size of a dime. Antenna for subscribers are housed in an antenna farm that captures broadcast networks, stores them in in a cloud, and delivers them live to your computer, tablet or smartphone. There is a problem, the major broadcasters are not happy that aereo, has basically provided a way for viewers to bypass buying their continent a traditional cable package. They say what aereo is doing amounts to left the. Ranking tv signals and repackaging them for profit without lawfully acquiring the content. But aereos ceo told katie couric that they have nothing done wrong. The idea that someone is using an antenna is stealing a signal, just flies in the face of traditional definition. If someone has come out with a smarter antenna, and you dont like that that evolution is happening, well, im sorry about that, and thats just the nature industry. Patricia sabga, al jazeera. Arrow says broadcast television makes 90 of its profits from his advertisers. But on tuesday comes the big test, a showdown at the Supreme Court. If aereo loses it could put them out of business for good. The ceo says he is confident the broadcasters will win, and if they dont win, he says the networks are form their own version of an aereo. Joining me now is mamiram good freed. So as a consumer it seems like aereo is a good thing . It seems like it. The fees that the Cable Companies have to pay the broadcasters just to carry their signal are one of the top causes of is price inflation, and that trickles down to you as a consumer. The only time they are free is when you are getting those little rabbit ears out and try to catch the signal. Who television . There are the chord cutter, the people who dont want to pay for cable, but want a good signal. So you could aware you, plus netflix, plus hulu , that basically gives me all of the content i would want. A big discount. Exactly. Exactly. So what is the implication . First of all i havent seen a lot of handicapping on which way this goes with the Supreme Court . Its really hard to tell. There are some people who say the broadcasters are going to win because there is so much at stake for them, they are going to defend it as fiercely as possible, and going up against a pretty small startup but a pretty small startup that is funded by some fairly wealthy people. Exactly. What is at stake here is billions of dollars in revenue that broadcasters get right now. And if aereo wins those revenues may go away. So if i think back, though, hulu was also a reaction to the fact that people were putting stuff on youtube. The threat that if the broadcast networks dont win this one, they can develop Something Like this, is that true . I dont see why it wouldnt be true. I think what is less true is what you have heard from other broadcast executives who have said were just going to duck behind the cable wall and stop being free to air broadcasters. That i dont think is going to happen, because one of the things you get much higher ratings because everybody can get you for free. Where is the Justice Department on this . Well, i dont know exactly. And i think that will come out maybe a little bit in the testimonies tomorrow. Thats something to look for. But i dont even think well be able to come away with tomorrows hearing with a clear idea of who is winning. I dont think well know until the Supreme Court makes a decision this summer. Now in the end. The move towards chord cutters is growing. Bottom line is we meet them all the time. I dont know if you have a lot of friends who buy these 150 cable packages. They are out there. How do these Companies Deal with the fact that more and more people are going that way. If its not aereo, people will keep inventing ways to buy around cable packages. Right now that is a relatively small number of people. So they are really investing in the concept of tv everywhere. Which is if im a cable subscriber, i can sign in and watch all of these channels villa ipad or my desktop compute or other means as long as im a subscriber. So well offer you more of the connectivity that you might want chord. Is that the thing the chord cutters want . I think they just dont want to pay the money. So thats one of the Big Questions is how long does that take to that to be eaten away at, and how long does it take to make it cheaper for consumers, to get in and do what they want to do. Thank you for being with us. Always a pleasure. Likewise. If you stream movies and shows on netflix, the company dropped a little news that will definitely effect you. Plus the gas and oil boom has america on the path to Energy Independence, but we probably wont get there. Ill tell you why. Keep it right here. On Al Jazeera America when science intersects with hope. Im hoping to give someone a prosthetic arm for under 1000 inovation finds oppurtunity a large earthquake would be an inconvenience rather than a disaster. And hardware meets humanity this is some of the best driving ive ever done eventhough i cant see. Techknow our experts take you beyond the lab were here in the vortex. And explore the Technology Changing our world. Only on Al Jazeera America start with one issue education. Gun control. The gap between rich and poor. Job creation. Climate change. Tax policy. The economy. Iran. Healthcare. Ad guests on all sides of the debate. This is a right we should all have. Its just the way it is. Theres something seriously wrong. Theres been acrimony. The conservative ideal. Its an urgent need. And a host willing to ask the tough questions how do you explain it to yourself . And youll get. The inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on Al Jazeera America now if you like your netflix plan you are keep it, but for new customers, prices are going higher. They will raise prices by 1 or 2 for new customers within the next few months. They havent changed pricing plans in the United States since 1997 when it tried to introduce two separate plans. That didnt go over very well. Netflix executives are emphas e emphasizing the growth in content as well as original programming. This news came after the Company Reported very strong profit and subscriber growth for the first three months of year. Jake ward is outside netflix head quarterers in california, jake, i have to tell you, i was one of those people i left netflix in 2011, when they did that thing. Because i liked getting the dvdzs and they didnt have as much to offer in streaming as the dvds. But in the end they understand the difference. Now before i ask you to comment on it. If you bought netflix stock five years ago, you are up 650 right now. Talk to me about this. Thats really the amazing thing about this. Its a very happy day here, because its showing that the gamble has paid off, because they have lost a handful of relationships with other content partners, their catalog shrunk a bit for the internetonly viewers, and investing in other original series, it turns out they made their money back plus some. And it turns out that putting 100 million into paying kevin spacey to create new content pays back handsomely. But the reason they have be to brutal about adding a 1 or 2 is because they dont have any other source of revenue. Thats interesting, but i guess that subscription revenue is a good thing. Back in the old days when it was a onetrick pony, i thought if all you have to do is ship out dvds how come jake and i cant get into this interest. And it gives you to causes you to join netflix. Absolutely. They have created an addictive quality. And they have combined their incredible analytics that go from be ing a provider and combine that with being a creator. They knew from all of their User Behavior analysis that kevin spacey was going to do well. They new a dark femalelead comedy was going to do well. Right, and i thought that matrix was just so they could tell me, hey if you like this movie, youll like this one. Listen, next week you are going to at a Facebook Developers conference, and one of the things that people are talking about with facebook is the idea that they might develop a payment system, you can pay people using a facebook account. What do you know about this . Well, this is obviously a have been big deal if it does happen. And the rumor is they are weeks away from creating a payment system. It makes logical sense in terms of the social behaviors we have come to associate with facebook. You share photos via facebook, why wouldnt you use facebook payments to pay each other back, or book the hotel, which i think is probably what facebook has in mind. Paypal jumped from 750 million to over 27 billion in 2013. So its a huge market. On the other hand i think facebook has had a lot of privacy problems. So its not clear to me that people would be willing to hand over payment through facebook. You mentioned paypal, a lot of people dont realize, paypal is part of ebay, and it is the biggest part. If you judged it on the money it makes it would be called paypal not ebay. Air b b this thing that allows you to stay a house while you are away. I saw a reported estimation of 10 billion. I always wonder whether these valuations make sense or not. There is undoubtedly somebody, the head of a hotel chain just heard you say that and health a dagger in his or heart heart. They have invested a new industry. And they are starting to bump into the same kinds of legal trouble that uber has been bumping into when it comes to the limousine business. They just got permission to just sort of openly advertise listings in san francisco. Up until now people who were subletting out their place were in theory in violation of their contract with their landlord, and by jumping over those kinds of hurdles, they have really created this whole other secondary market where people who are renting a place in the worlds most expensive cities get to make some money back, so i think the inventiveness is what is paying off. I know in new york and san francisco, a lot of people are complaining where they thought they lived in a building where the people had been vetted properly. Jake thank you very much. Nike laid off some employees on a project prompting speculation that they will stop making wearable fitness computers. Leaving the future of the fuel band up in the air. A strike by Chinese Workers at a factory that makes nike sneakers is stretching into a second week. They continue to demand benefits that they say the company promised them but failed to deliver. And the contentious bat t l to use i dont know nice a last februarys rejection to unionize, the union in charge that the vote was improperly influenced. Tennessee is trying to convince volkswagon to bring production to its state. If you can hear a train whistle from your front porch, im talking to you. Coming up, imagining an energy is independent america, but my next guest is going to tell me to keep dreaming. That and more coming up. On the next talk to Al Jazeera Oscar winner sean penn shares his views on privacy rights, press freedom and his controversial relationship with hugo chavez talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America now inroducing, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. Get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. A global perspective wherever you are. The major headlines in context. Mashable says. Youll never miss the latest news they will continue looking for suvivors. The potential for Energy Production is huge. No noise, no clutter, just real reporting. The new Al Jazeera America mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. Download it now the stream is uniquely interactive television. In fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. All these folks are making a whole lot of money. You are one of the voices of this show. I think youve offended everyone with that kathy. Hold on, theres some room to offend people, im here. We have a right to know whats in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. So join the conversation and make it your own. Watch the stream. And join the conversation online ajamstream. When it comes to pipelines from canada, its more hurry up and wait. The state department is delaying a decision on whether the xl pipeline should be built. In february a District Court prevented the nebraska governor to allow the pipeline to run through its state. And the Obama Administration has decided its better to wait until nebraska have completes the legal battle before it makes its decision. David doug into the details and explains what the keystone xl is all about. Reporter for more than half a decade, plans for a new pipeline have pitted Energy Producers against farmers and environmentalists. We will not let you build this pipeline the controversy has bee been verdict wally unpress dented for a pipeline. I do want to be clear, allowing the Keystone Pipeline to be built requiring a finding that doing so would be in our nations interest. Canada is the worlds sixth largest oil producer, and sends virtually all of its exports to american oil refineries. And there is a slew of secondary pipelines which cross the border into some states. So why such big concerns over a new one . Part of the reason is location. It would travel under the ogallala aquifer. One still into our aquifer, you know, it can spread miles. If our water is contaminated we have no water for the cattle. Critics argue that it would create further incentives to are process soil sands. And yet a state Department Report concluded in january that the keystone xl would not substantially worsen carbon pollution, thats because crude from Canadas Oil Sands would probably reach u. S. Markets anyway, most likely by rail if the pipeline isnt built. If were not getting that oil, we will be importing more oil from other countries. Reporter the decision ultimately rests with the state department. And with a Midterm Campaign condition quickly approaching, the Obama Administration says it is still going to wait when it comes to a decision. All right. By the way this is what we are talking about here. This is oil sands let me take this out and show it to you. I got this while i was up in the oil sands. When i was a kid we used to call this tar sand. The term is now used mostly by folks who oppose it. It looks and feels like and by the way smells like tar and sand mixed together. It is not actually tar in here. It is a substance that has to be washed away to result in oil. It is a bit of an icky process to get it to the usable state. Most north american oil is still transported by pipeline, but moving crude by rail is quickly gaining ground, and recent crashes call the safety in to question. Donald says underground pipelines are for the most part the safest option. Don, thank you for being here. Good to see you. Good to see you too, ali. It is tough to have this discussion and explain to people who are very legitimately worried, pipelines have had leaks but the effort to keep that pipeline out is causing more and more oil to go by rail, and we are learning how dangerous by rail can be. That certainly is true, and i think its very safe to move it under the ground, and the new pipelines that they are developing have better coatings, and they are going to be safer, and they are looking closer at the wells for each section of pipes. And right now phase number 1 is already producing or transporting a lot of oil, and that pipeline is a lot older than the new one that they are trying to build, and it would be a lot safer if they could shut down the old one and bring in phase 4. The environmentalists say if we talk about oil leaking go the ogallala will alarm people. And it did. But this does end up creating more co 2 emission than oil that you have in texas where you just get it out of the ground. The environmentalists are saying getgo. Yeah, you absolutely right there. However, a lot of the companies are developing technologies to extract it with little bit less of a Carbon Footprint so they are reducing the Carbon Footprint all the time on the extraction, and one of the best methods is the steam assisted gravity drainage and they are pushing on new technologies to make that even more carbon neutral. The other issue, though, is you have to heat the oil to turn it into a syn fuel, and that takes the use of hydro carbons. At the moment they are using natural gas which is the other complaint. So its a tricky conversation, because you use water and you use a fuel product to create another fuel product and a lot of waste, and then a bunch of opponents say it looks when you look at a map of where this goes cutting through oklahoma, going down into the ports on the gulf coast, why does it appear that were taking oil through the United States, turning it into petrochemicals and shipping them out . Why does it appear that way . Because were not shipping all of them out, but one of the things thats absolutely probable is that the United States does have excessive or not excessive, but surplus refinery capacity, and one of the things we can do is the xl pipeline is not just going to help the canadian crude, but it will help the bakken area as well. So what the pipeline will do, will help bring on a lot of cheaper sources of oil than what we would get from overseas and get them to different refineries, whether they be refineries for heavy crudes or refineries for light crudes and get them to market quickener terms of refined product, and the United States now has a lot of light crude that needs to be taken to market, so we have actually a discount on our premium. So we have a cheaper product, and we have refining capacity, and a surplus area, and we can we can actually turn it around and sell it to markets that pay more for gasoline. Is there some sense that if this pipeline were built, would lower . I think ultimately, it would come down at least 5 to 10 , because again, we would be able to tap into our cheaper crudes, whether they be from west texas or whether they be from the bakken or canada. You would be able to tap into those cheaper crudes. We would be able to transported them more efficiently. And that would save the refineries some money. And that would help save money for the american consumer. And i think even if we export gasoline, they are going to be focusing on producing gasoline at the level of our surplus capacity in our refineries, and not taking away from the home. Donald always a pleasure to tubing talk to you. Vice President Biden is ukraine offering technical no how on how to boost Energy Production in gas fields. Kiev gets about half of its gas from moscow, and a large proportion of europes gas is pumped from russia through ukraine. Coming up why some say were just Getting Started on an energy boom. Results of analyses were skewed in favor of the prosecution the fbi cant force the states to look at those cases the truth will set you free yeah. Dont kid yourself the system has failed me ica well, earlier we talked ca about the debate, over the Keystone Pipeline which would transport canadien oil down to the gulf region. But the other side to the story says americas own energy boom. Domestic oilout put has risen by 200 since 2010. Now much of that, thanks to fracing, or hydraulic fracturing technology. This is making the idea of Energy Independence a very attainable goal. Harrod hamm is a pioneer in the bakken region in north dakota. He is billionaire whos company produces 150,000 barrels of oil a day. Forbes magazine says he is the man fuelling americas future. He is on the cover of the magazine this month. We have the author of that article. Chris, thank you for joining us. You just heard don talking not just about the oil that comes from canada, but also the bakken shale. Hamm looked at that, and said i can get the oil out of here, and he is doing that. Yeah, the bakken has been an absolutely fabulous find for america. It is producing 1 Million Barrels a day. And if you pair the bakken of north dakota with the eagle folder shale of texas, thats about 3. 4 Million Barrels of day of oil that the United States was not producing just five years ago. This is the real keystone of the American Energy boom. We are producing 800 Million Barrels a year of our own oil that in years past we would have been forced to buy from opec, saudi arabia, russia. So if you look at the bakken, there are two things that are going on. It has brought the price of natural gas down, its a great source of electricity in this country. So a lot of heavy industry can come back as a result of that. And were seeing that. Were seeing factories that were idle coming back online. Reinvention. Oh, absolutely. We are producing 10 trillion cubic feet a year of shale gas up from nothing 15 years ago. And we have the resource potential to keep doing this for the next 100 years or more. It is just going to continue to reinvent american manufacturing, and create many more billionaires than just harold hamm. He was a true rags to riches story. He was the youngest of 13 children born to crop producers. He had to fight when he was young. He had to build his own success with grit and determination. And he is worth 17 billion today. He thinks were only in the early innings of this boom. And forbes, we predict he would be one of the worlds 20 richest so. But he has something in common with a lot of rich oil men, and that is he does not want any more regulation develop. In the case of fracing they say it causes earthquakes, and a lot of people are mad about it going over their land. Im not sure it is going to move forward at the pace he would like it to, because regulation does get involved. Regulation so far has not stopped fracing at all. He would be the first to say, thank god, the Obama Administration hasnt put forth some federal regulation involving fracing. And the reason it hasnt is because this is a the golden goose. And if you look at the money that were saving by using our own cheaper natural gas, rather than having to import natural gas from the likes of qatar and australia, thats another 125 billion in savings. If you add in the domestic crude oil, thats 150 billion a year of savings, so theres no way that any politician in his or her right mind is going to enforce any sort of draconian restrictions on fracing. The simple truth is, despite all of the brouhaha there has not been sufficient damage caused to any farmland or aquifer that would even come close to balancing out the great benefit that fracing has brought to this country, and thats something that haroldhamm preaches the one thing i would say the reason the keystone xl pipeline has not been approved is because they were a little heavy handed in the way they dealt with the nebraska farmers. Thats right. But the beauty of the u. S. Oil and gas boom, ali, is as a result of all of our domestic supplies now, we dont need that canadian oil as much. We have an excess of crude oil in this country now. We cant even get it all to the refineries along the gulf coast. And oil men liker harold hamm would thereof be able to export this crude oil himself rather than sell it to the refineries. He says a farmer can export all of the corn or wheat it wants but you cant export oil. Exactly. All right. Chris thanks. When i come back, ill talk about Earnings Reports. Get a pencil, dont go away. We pray for the children in the womb a divisive issue god is life , so its his to take see a 10 Year Old Girl whos pregnant, and you tell me thats what god wants. A controversial law where were you when the babies lives were being saved . Are women in texas paying the price . Whos benefiting from restricting access to safe abortions . Fault lines. Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Ground breaking. Truth seeking. Breakthrough investigative documentary series access restricted only on Al Jazeera America real reporting that brings you the world. This is a pretty dangerous trip. Security in beirut is tight. More reporters. They dont have the resources to take the fight to al shabaab. More bureaus, more stories. This is where the typhoon came ashore. Giving you a real global perspective like no other can. Al jazeera, nairobi. On the turkeysyria border. Venezuela. Beijing. Kabul. Hong kong. Ukraine. The artic. Real reporting from around the world. This is what we do. Al Jazeera America. Al Jazeera America is a straightforward news channel. Its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. We believe in digging deep. Its unbiased, factbased, indepth journalism. You give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. Im on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. In new orleans. Seattle bureau. Washington. Detroit. Chicago. Nashville. Los angeles. San francisco. Al Jazeera America, take a new look at news. We are deep in report card season for companies. Else that how i explain earnings when people ask, and we are in the thick of them this week. Of the 500 companies, 159 reporting results this week. Now its worth picking apart some of the numbers released by individual companies, like netflix or google or j. P. Pmorgan chase or exxon. Thats why i report on select earnings on this show. But i dont want you to get bogged down in the minutia. The way earnings season works could make you feel left out of the game. Thats because, much like your kids reports cards Earnings Reports boil down to how the Company Performed in the quarter, compared to hot it was expected to perform. So even the profits soared 40 , if the analysts at the investment banks expected 45 , the headline will contain the word disappointing. And that alone is likely to cause the stock price to drop. Now thats important for you, but you should be investing for the long term. And one disappointing Earnings Report shouldnt matter that much to you. What does matter is the overall trend. And what that tells us about the u. S. Economy, and right now the message were getting is that its a mixed bag. More than 70 of the companies that have announced results this season have beaten analysts profit estimates, and while that sounds good, the problem is the expectations are low. First quarter earnings for s p 500 companies as a whole are expected to fall 4 compared to last year. Is the good news is, one company says the First Quarter should be the low point. If american corporate earnings got a cminus this quarter, theres hope they will raise that grade by the end of the year. Tuesday ill bring you the second part of our series on High Frequency training. Tomorrow we zero in on the need for speed and the incredible length High FrequencyTrading Companies are going to increase speed. You dont to miss this. All im looking at the issue of tipping. Many waiters and waitresses struggle to make ends meet. Ill explain why other people say eliminating tipping all together is the way to go. All of that and more is coming up on real money. Thanks for sticking with us for the whole hour. Well be 60 minutes every day from here on in. Im ali velshi. Thanks for joining us. All this week, trades near the speed of light. If youre not trading at those speeds, youre toast billions of dollars at stake, is our economy insecurity now at the mercy of these machines . Humans arent able to receive information in that timeframe. Were looking at the risks, rewards, and dangers of High Frequency trading there are no rules or regulations all this week on the new expanded real money with ali velshi helping you balance your finances and your life. Now an hour, starting at 7 eastern 4 pacific only on Al Jazeera America announcer this is al jazeera. Hello and welcome to the al jazeera news hour, live from our Global Headquarters in doha, these are the stories we are covering this hour. More than 200 people are killed in the south sudan town and blames rebel groups. The u. S. Examples allegations that toxic chemicals have been used in syria. This is the scene right now in kiev where u. S. Vice President Joe Biden is trying to ease tensions