[Mikeb85]

Dunno, I for one value the service HFTs provide. They're the reason that I, as a small investor, can unload 50,000 dollars worth of shares in a couple seconds.

Have you ever traded a stock market with low liquidity? You can have a market sell order sitting all day... I'd rather pay the small HFT toll, I still make plenty anyhow.

[adamgravitis]

HFTs aren't really helping your situation at all. Other forms of liquidity generators might be, but HFTs are exploiting microsecond-level arbitrage opportunities. I've never heard of a small investor with sub-second execution requirements. In fact, I'd be curious why you needed to execute 50,000 shares in a few seconds at all. From my perspective, I'd be thrilled if I could sell a few shares over several minutes as long as I were confident I was getting a good price.

[kasey_junk]

That is a completely inaccurate generalization about what HFTs do. There is a class of HFT that does latency/venue arbitration but it is a very small niche.

The vast majority of HFT volume on the other hand is traditional market making. This HFT market making is much more efficient and fair than human market making was. It is driving down the bid/ask spread to the thinnest possible levels (at least the thinnest legal levels). This is the single biggest driver to you getting the best price.

Being a retail investor right now is the best it has ever been and HFT systems are a large reason why.

[Mikeb85]

Getting quick execution is nice. It's part of getting a good price - the price I want at the time. Retail investors would normally go to the back of the line, do you think human brokers and market makers are fair?

I execute fairly quick trading strategies, I hold a stock from a day to a week, being able to sell at the peak of an up day or unload shares when the market is just beginning to move against me, as opposed to minutes or hours later is everything.

And as another poster said, most of what HFT is, is market making... (Even traditional MMs made their money on arbitrage)