[clavalle]

I think HFT can actually serve to smooth out inefficiencies in the market.

That being said, it can, and almost certainly has, been abused. I am thinking mostly of 'quote stuffing'.

Also, there is the potential for a feedback loop between trading systems that can send prices to levels that are way undervalued or overvalued. I think overall these fears are probably way overblown but I suppose they do exist. Basically, I think it HFT fine but I hope the SEC is catching up technologically to prevent both catastrophic situations in time and bad actors from taking advantage of structural exploits.