You are moving the goal post, nobody claimed such. It's shit like brokers (who are deriving benefits from hft and pfof) refusing long orders on certain stocks, ever more exchanges that enable hft with their faster lines to frontrun orders on multiple exchanges at the same time,and many other shenanigans. There is no central marketplace, its a completely broken system that only works for the few and disadvantages the many. And I directly worked in this space not for 9 months but for over 9 years.
Almost never,and Im not busting balls... I had a 2.5 year ARB where I couldnt believe how good the fills were ,and it was the pay for order flow crowd that was the other side.. Full disclosure,its gone now, but trading 4- 6 leg structures with zero commish is huge.. I honestly do not know where you are coming from,but I see why you could align with him.. Trading is hard enough when things line up... If you are getting fucked 50% of the time,all is not well,and it may be time to look elsewhere
Probably because you operated in a very narrowly defined niche. Pfof and subpennying are absolutely the culprits that fill the pockets of a few at the expense for many and directly opposes an equitable, centralized marketplace. Care to explain why I or most others cant provide liquidity at the same fraction than the big boys? And why they can run multiple concurrent orders on either side but we can't all the while they can pull their orders whenever it pleases them hence without providing the same functions of traditional market makers?
Absolutely, it changes everything about queue priority. Goodness, have you ever worked in this space? I have, for years. I sold several very successful proprietary vwap algorithms to a large buy side fund house (which enabled me to retire early) and the strategies' edge degraded over time because large hft players constantly lobbied changes to market microstructure that even disadvantaged large execution traders at large investment firms. Only when they invested millions to hire away hft engineers was the time when they became able to upgrade their infrastructure to attempt to compete with the ever changing speed game. This has nothing whatsoever to do with a fair equitable market place anymore but rather a race to the bottom. It's a lose-lose for everyone except the few hft houses who take zero responsibility as liquidity providers whenever vol pops. Their value-added is questionable at best.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!! No I havent worked in this space... I lift offers,hit bids when I delta hedge..without blinking Split markets on spreads 90 percent of the time...
Then I am confused why you inject your unqualified opinion on something you don't seem to fully comprehend. I think you would equally criticise me if I stepped on your turf and shared views that reflected my lack of expertise in your edge.
This topic is obviously a somewhat sensitive one for you,and after reading that you get fucked 50% of the time,I get it... Why on earth a retail guy trades in a space where a penny matters is the only thing I dont fully comprehend....But that is one mans opinion.. The APE crowd was equal parts obnoxious and dumb/lucky,but I applaud those who made the most out of buying shit companies while paying 200 plus vol... This guy represents them,worked at Citadel,and now is "going after Citadel" for "social justice". Retail investors couldnt give a rats ass about this issue,and they are the ones who truly matters. The whole article smells...
I was not retail at that time. And the reason retail can't compete in this space is the same reason even large buy side firms can hardly compete in, its a pure latency race, it does not kill gross investment performance but eats significantly into transaction cost the shorter the holding period. But it also affects general retail because investors can't ever get to the front of the queue when someone can place their bid or offer a fraction of a penny tighter while retail can't. This really affects orders in low vol names even if daily $ turnover is huge and even if a trader is not competing in this latency space. My larger point here is that there is neither a societal nor economic benefit when hundreds of thousands of players get disadvantaged for the benefit of 10 firms.