That seems to be a trend among the reality fabricators. To paraphrase the last far right wing candidate to get the republican nomination, apparently making stuff up in the defence of liberty is no vice. I happen to think most of Sander's economic ideas are bat*%@ crazy, in fact so crazy that there's no need to exaggerate to make that point!
If you cannot you should find another job. I would if I cannot make 1 point per RT. Too many people who want to become a trader are not qualified for it. But as there are no requirements, except of having some money, everybody can start to trade. Most of them THINK they can trade. Like most think they are very good drivers. Many people have problems with their self estimation. That's why 90% lose. It is hard but it is reality.
A barber provides a service, HFT doesn't. If I could compete on an equal footing with them, it would be fair but that's not currently possible. Market should be orderly in a first-in-first-served basis but I constantly see myself being early at a price and I'm the last to get filled, how do you explain that? Explain how IEX that puts HFT traders at the same level speed wise, 95% of the time has better fills than any other ECN, including those who do hundreds of times more shares. I don't really need a debate on this, the proof is with the results. I often provide liquidity in shares and according to you I should be grateful that they send orders that are never filled. You didn't read my comment thoroughly, there was plenty of liquidity in the beginning of 00s and HFT was a minority. You seem to be seeking extreme examples. There's HFT in futures as well and why are you talking about flash crash? HFT was already owning the market back then and you seem to think 0.01 bids on NYSE: PG were normal, HFT doing it's "job".
Don't keep your hopes up, HFT earns billions and with that kind of money you can buy favorable laws. HFT guys will lobby to have themselves excluded and it's always the guys without a lobby group (read: us) that have to pay the tax.
I agree with a lot of this. If politicians really wanted to reduce HFT's they would be championing more exchanges like IEX for futures. Im totally against FTT and Bernie Sander's and his crackpot "magic money tree" policies. But I started trading professionally back in 2006 and a lot of the contracts i trade were doing more volume back then than now. And there were a lot more profitable individual traders back then instead of all the cash going to 1 or 2 big algo firms. But.. maybe im a luddite that longs for the old days (even though i make way more money now.. but put that down to experience)