This is a point worth considering that the other comments seem to ignore. If you embezzle a million dollars from a charity and give half of it back, that doesn'

This is a point worth considering that the other comments seem to ignore. If you embezzle a million dollars from a charity and give half of it back, that doesn't make you an altruistic person. (Saying that just as a thought experiment, not saying that's what's hapenning here.) For the justification to hold up, you probably need to believe some mixture of the following: - high frequency trading adds value to society comparable to the amount of money you make - more money should be transferred from the first world to the third world than people are currently voluntarily willing to give