[the_pwner224]

HFT and front running is a plague upon the markets, but there are already effective ways to stop it (order batching, and time delays like IEX does). The only reason it even exists is because the exchanges make tons of $$$ from selling access to the HFTs.

On the other hand, day traders provide valuable liquidity to the markets, making them more efficient and better for everyone. They ability to operate would be severely harmed with even a 1% fee on every trade. And more fees also harm normal people like me, who conduct trades that generally last from a few days to a few weeks each. For the most part, we're not harming other people, and we make the markets more efficient and legitimate.

The weird market effects are enabled by what is basically corruption by large entities involved with the markets, and by the ineffectiveness of the SEC at fighting a wide range of anticompetitive practices. They are caused by people who are making a small amount on every trade, but not all of the people making a small amount on every trade are bad.

[fallingfrog]

Personally I think that there is such a thing as too much liquidity, and we are at that point now. It certainly undercuts the power of the workers in a region if its that easy to pull money out, but the people can’t leave. So the holders of the capital have all kinds of leverage (they can pull their money out in a nanosecond) but the people have none (they are stuck where they are and must take what they can get).