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If an HFT firm was "front running" as you put it, and you know about it, why doesn't the SEC? Front running is not legal. Or are you using the Flash Boys defini

• anigbrowl 9y ago
  The SEC doesn't have infinite resources, but has to enforce somewhat selectively. It's possible that they disapprove of some kinds of HFT activities but doubt their own ability to persuade a jury sufficiently well to justify the cost of prosecution. I don't mean this as a comment on HFT or the law, I really don't know. I'm just pointing out that the SEC is bound by budgetary constraints and that litigation is very expensive, so they have to do cost/benefit analysis and prioritize the cases that are more likely to win. And this is before political considerations come into the picture. News articles described the 'resident's SEC pick as being more interested in capital formation than enforcement; that seems a pretty reasonable assessment to me, given that S&C was representing Goldman Sachs during the epic CDO litigation, the cabinet is stuffed with GS alumni, and the administration's general attitude seems to be less regulation for more muscular and dynamic capitalism. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-sec-idUSKBN14N1Y9 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-sec-idUSKBN14N1Y...