The article is very tendentious. I despise HFT as much as the next guy, but it's mostly useless rent seeking, economically, not massive manipulation. There is

The article is very tendentious. I despise HFT as much as the next guy, but it's mostly useless rent seeking, economically, not massive manipulation. There is money on the table in trading, and the HFT firms try to take a bigger part of that pie, rather than letting it go to their competitors or other traders (like funds or retail investors). Next, hedge funds shorting businesses they consider overvalued is a perfectly fine activity that helps price discovery and capital allocation. To the extent that they are deceptive and manipulative, that is a problem, just as deceptively and manipulatively hyping a stock up is a problem. Finally, note that there is no value created here. It's purely a transfer of money. A few hedge funds might lose something (though that remains to be seen - shorts have no expiry, per se, and the borrow cost is absolutely manageable over days, weeks, or even months). But mostly, this will be a huge transfer of money from those that jumped on the long trade late, to those that were in it early. EDIT to add: And, putting a cherry on the fine research that went into the article, the Keynes quote is from A. Gary Shilling from the 1980s. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/08/09/remain-solvent/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/08/09/remain-solvent/