Who cares if institutional traders can't figure out why the price is moving. All traders do is arbitrage, computers are much better at spotting arbitrage oppor

Who cares if institutional traders can't figure out why the price is moving. All traders do is arbitrage, computers are much better at spotting arbitrage opportunities than humans are. That institutional traders can't figure it out merely points to their irrelevance. Now, on the other hand what we should be concerned about is if HFT is ruining the investment climate and since companies rarely offer their stock it almost certainly has no effect on the investment climate which looks at the macro conditions across years rather than the microclimate of the next few minutes as traders do. The price of a stock, or the value of an index at any point in time has almost no relevance to the economy as a whole. What matters is that over long periods of time these companies deliver great value to their customers. Lets worry about GS, et al, selling stock that doesn't exist (naked shorting) before we worry about HFT.