[yummyfajitas]

You can't reasonably expect regular people to know in which situations they'll be paying a premium for a liquidity

If you cross the spread you paid for liquidity. If you don't know this, don't trade.

Trading without understanding this is like coding without knowing what memory is.

It's completely fair to ask ourselves as a society if HFT groups are making a contribution to society...

The people choosing to purchase liquidity certainly seem to think they are. Their only complaint is that is that the price is not as favorable as they'd like.

[klochner]

Chris, can you at least read the NYT excerpt? I have to agree that your post does little to settle what may or may not be controversial, and it would be interesting to hear an informed response.

[rayiner]

Chris, I'd love to see you do a similar article on how human traders come into play in similar situations. Isn't the point of (at least some of) them also that they add liquidity? What makes HFT worse in that regard?