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> I do not think that high frequency trading firms are really providing value to society Define "value to society" I will start by saying that HFT firms emplo

• lmm 8y ago
  > HFT firms employ people, gives them jobs, purpose, and most importantly, a pay check. This in turn generates tax revenue for any government and society. That's putting the cart before the horse. People get a sense of purpose and a paycheck from a job because jobs are generally providing value to society - the money ultimately comes from people who get value from what they do paying it. If the money is coming from a government regulation rather than because people actually want to buy what they're selling, it's a make-work scheme, not a business. The sub-penny rule is, essentially, a tax on investors that is then handed to the winners of a mostly-meaningless competition. You could equally take the same tax on investors and hand the money to whoever dug the longest ditch (or whatever) and that would "employ people, gives them jobs, purpose, and most importantly, a pay check", but that wouldn't be contributing anything valuable to society either.
• mannykannot 8y ago
  I don't have any particular antipathy towards HFT, so I will just note that organized crime does all of the above (though it notoriously under-reports its economic activity, and consequently underpays taxes on it.)
• Abekkus 8y ago
  Extracting value is not at all the same as contributing value. Contributed value cannot be measured by people's bank accounts.