Flash trading was blatant frontrunning. The old "gap and print" from the floor specialist was criminal. Both systems were flat out stealing.
this goes on everyday in the OTC market. you call and try to get a quote. they ask buy or sell? or say we'll get back the trader is away from his desk.
Long term INVESTORS don't give a shit about the spread. If they buy GE and pay an extra 1/8 for it , and hold it for months or years, do you really think it matters? Spreads are important only for TRADERS. If you don't know this, you're not very bright. Even if you do know this , you may not be very bright, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. HFT is nothing more than what all proprietary traders have done for decades. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. They front run the flow. Paste that on the top of your pin heads apologists, no one is buying your BS.
from my understanding HFT is they have earlier access to the order, so they know the order before it reaches to exchange and broadcast to other networks. Of course it is all in milli seconds, so today's computer can do it.
This is why they are printing money and not taking any losses, they are front running, its guaranteed free fucking money no matter what.
Funny that when HFT walked away, there was no bid in the market down to 0.01 on some stocks. Like I've said before in a debt-based economy there's almost no such thing as fundamentals.
what was the name of the movie that highlighted the stockmarket implosion as the begining of anarchy and ww3? came out in the late 80's or early 90's.
BINGO!!! they sniff the flow and the discrepancies in pricing in different markets trading the same thing, and pull the trigger, faster than a team of 5 guys trading the same size. That's whyso many go automated (or did you know that already). It's an arbitrage play.. What's front running about that? Sounds like someone lost money last week.. Actually to be honest, the OP doesn't sound like he trades at all (at least not with any size or insight to the markets) i.e. systems, deeper levels, pools of access etc.. Maybe I'm mistaken but, if so, I have trouble understanding why you wouldn't get how it is, accept it and move on...