It was around 2006 when an article mentioned that majority of trading will be taken over by algos and it proved true. However, performance of trading desks and big funds did not improve by leaps and bounds. Hence, the automation helps only to an extent it seems.
when everyone has the same tools, trying to take money from one another, in the end, it is still stuff of human emotional euphoria/capitulation. trade the trapped traders. & even trade the traders who thought they traded the trapped traders. it's all a game of poker like decisions the early algo traders benefited from being first on boarders for arbitrage trading, when arb was still mostly manual. less rules then, less restrictions, less competitors