Why is high frequency trading still allowed? /nt

[still_one]

[AngryAmish]

1. liquidity is the answer given

[MineralMan]

2. Mainly because so many people are making their money by

churning the market, taking small profits frequently, then manipulating the market to drop fractionally in order to buy.

The stock market is only a means of raising capital over the long term. On a short term basis, it's there to help people make money by manipulating stock prices in the short term. You're not going to see high frequency trading go away. It's the reason stocks are traded the way they are.

[tridim]

3. Because the people collecting the money from HFT are the same people who set the rules.

[JHB]

4. Because the people who want it push hard against any effort to affect it...

...and the people against it haven't made it enough of a priority to counteract that.