[aspensmonster]

Question for kasey_junk, seeing as s/he is taking questions :D

Lewis: "This form of front running is legal. It's legalized front running. It is crazy that it's legal for some people to get advance news on prices and other --[information on] what other investors are doing. It's just nuts. It shouldn't happen."

Do you agree or disagree with Lewis' assessment of the state of HFT?

[kasey_junk]

I completely disagree. First as a caveat, I've never traded US equities. That said, the idea that all participants in the markets have the exact same access to information that every other participant has is ludicrous. That has never been the case, and can never be the case.

Trading costs as a whole are lower now than they have ever been. Is that entirely due to HFT? No, of course not, but any "fix" you could put in place would most likely have huge negative unintended consequences. Let's all take our cheap investments to the bank and be happy that we don't have to pay 6'8" gorilla's to make our trades.