the main, reasonable complaint against HFT (at least from my perspective, besides brain-drain) is the introduction of a higher volatility. since pension funds a

the main, reasonable complaint against HFT (at least from my perspective, besides brain-drain) is the introduction of a higher volatility. since pension funds and other institutional investors dont usually have them same well trained funds managers and sophisticated analytics, yet a much higher volume, they are usually the ones who get it in the pants. the loss might be fractional, since you are usually investing long term, yet a short fluctation (eg. 2 cents, after you started executing your orders) in prices does add up if you're investing upwards of 100 mil.