Smart not to mention Mercer though! People (both on HN and at large) seem to believe that HFT is somehow unfair, probably because of Flash Boys or some uninfor

Smart not to mention Mercer though! People (both on HN and at large) seem to believe that HFT is somehow unfair, probably because of Flash Boys or some uninformed NYT article. But back to the point, unless you believe in communism, then the best way to help the world and add value is to make money. Simply put, if you are making money, you are doing good (there are exceptions, of course and they usually involve the government). It is folly to measure social contribution in any other way (charity isn't doing good, it means whoever you are giving it to is doing good). People, especially with HFT, think the world and the markets are a zero-sum game. I think the problem people have with HFT is that it doesn't seem "fair." Mom and Pop don't have a co-located server with ASICs churning out latency arb trades so they shouldn't be able to do that either! But why would you expect Mom and Pop to be able to compete in the first place? They probably wouldn't be able to compete with dentists, race car drivers, or scientists, so why should they be able to compete with professional investors?