[gpsx]

Regarding the short term versus long term, I agree with you here. I meant to differentiate between getting profit by investing, which certainly has a lot of value and is the whole point of capital markets, and from getting profit from fluctuations in the current price not tied to an inherent value of the company, which is where I think you have the winner and loser, even if the trades involve multiple parties. Clearly this is what is being done in high frequency trading.

I can buy the idea of high frequnecy trading serving as market making even if it is not something I can fully appreciate. But it still seems like these high frequency traders (and others invovled in investing based on fluctations) are mainly skimming money from the market without providing value.