[valdiorn]

> A bunch of crooks and gamblers who have no idea what they are doing, while everyone thinks they do.

You've just done a huge rant on how they have a smooth-running machine destroying the economy, making billions, being ruthless, and now you say they "have not idea what they're doing". Sorry mate, but these people know exactly what they're doing. In fact, most of them are really fucking smart, and that's why they're able to get away with legally extracting tens of billions of dollars from the markets.

[auntienomen]

10s of billions? That's a bit optimistic. The best HFTs, of which there are a handful, have revenues of roughly $1 billion. That's revenue. Their net profits are usually in the $10 to $100 million range. (See for example, Virtu's recent IPO filing.) These are successful global businesses, but they're hardly outliers in that crowd. Hell, Twitter had more revenue last year.