Apparently HFT is good for us, who knew http://www.marketwatch.com/story/in...r-thanks-to-high-frequency-trading-2016-05-12
http://chatwithtraders.com/ep-071-eric-hunsader/ Give that a listen if you get the chance. He throws some interesting topics I"ve never heard of like "quote stuffing" as he calls it. I like how they like to use that better spreads are available to HFT. Eric makes a comment in that podcast about " How do you measure your spreads? I've seen prices spike 1 percent in a second and the bid/ask spread never be more then a penny". It's a misleading point.
This was written by a lobbyist for the HFT industry. While he makes some decent points in defending those who pay his bills, it's also clear that he's defending a wide range of activity, some of which is probably beneficial and some of which is toxic. Also, his reference to a 2010 Vanguard letter is a little odd -- not only due to its age, but also due to its later criticism of off-exchange trading that is favored by many of the largest HFT's: Harts later writes: Yet TD Ameritrade has done exactly that by selling its order flow to wholesalers, who then trade against TD Ameritrade's retail clients for their own account. Now DOJ has taken an interest, which can't be good for the reputations of either the wholesalers or the discount brokers who sell their order flow to them: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-probe-exclusive-idUSKCN0Y11CJ