[sam_in_nyc]

Your post is a jumble of invalid ideas that, to me, merely expresses your contempt of modern day Wall St. You're completely entitled to your opinion, but you should be more aware of exactly who it is you are pissed off at. You certainly should not typify anyone on Wall St as "harmful," especially when you do not know exactly what they are doing.

The article does not explain what the high frequency traders, specifically, are doing. But it is by no means necessarily evil. All they are doing is two things: they get their trades into the system quickly, and they get current market conditions quickly.

If there is anything that you should quarrel about, it is that their system is automated. But, still, at the end of the day they're the ones holding the bag. If they blow up, they're going to pay for it.

If they start packaging their complicated and automated trading algorithm as a "bond" and get it AAA rated, and then start selling it to pension funds, then you've got a reason to be pissed.