[jhales]

Assume you are referencing the flash and twitter crash? I always wondered why people never mention how fast it recovered... the ability to heal a market in seconds. The '87 crash was a cascade much more severe and actually involving the whole market that happened without HFT.

Also the incredible focus on these two events, considering all the other turmoil in the financial markets, has always struck me as a clear case of scapegoating with Luddite underpinnings. Pretty soon, we will all believe that the recession was caused by HFT's.

[washedup]

I agree. The speed at which markets respond to news reveals how efficient the system works. Flash-crashes and what not are either caused by human programming errors or it is simply the right reaction to new information about the environment. We want the new price to be discovered ASAP.