[ghufran_syed]

I'm pretty sure that if you have lots of firms trying to be "1 microsecond faster", then that creates more liquidity than you would have otherwise.

https://www.modernmarketsinitiative.org/hft-provides-continu...

Note that the link looks like it's some kind of industry group, but the listed references look like a useful place to start if you want to read more

[cma]

It's winner take all for whoever has the shortest path (for something like index arbitrage). There is no value added to anyone if another competitor invests millions in microwave relays or custom hardware parsing to snipe the previous low latency winner and beat them out. It's just wasted money, other than knock on effects of more demand for hardware growing the hardware industry faster.