Then hit the ask if you want to buy. Seriously, say for a $100 stock and you're complaining about $0.01 skim. Lets clean the slate. Lets get rid of all the HFT and algorithmic traders like you want. Legislate it out. Back to human market makers and mainly human traders. Spreads now $0.25.
The problem is, some people mix up the concepts or dont fully understand everything and draw an uninformed conclusion. They might google and find 'front running' is illegal, which it is, and then hear people say HFT is 'front running' so they should be banned. But HFT is not a broker dealer and is not 'front running' any paying client. To the guys that read the book and watch the 60 minutes documentary, these guys will think exactly that and have a biased view simply because they are uninformed and other people purposely misuse the term.
It is not a $0.01 skim. If the spread is $0.10 it is a $0.10 skim. If the spread is $0.25 it is a $0.25 skim. Multiply that by millions of shares traded every day. In the example above my order would have been filled at $10.00 if the market was not two-tiered, i.e. if a HFT could not buy a faster view of the market than other market participants.