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I'm surprised that the morality of HFT firms keeps coming up even among technically enlightened audiences. I'll preface this by saying I'm not a HFT or affilia
by erikig 13y ago
I'm surprised that the morality of HFT firms keeps coming up even among technically enlightened audiences.
I'll preface this by saying I'm not a HFT or affiliated to one but I strongly believe that HTFs and UHTFs play a valuable role in well regulated markets. We can argue endlessly as to whether the financial markets are well regulared but for this discussion let us assume they are pretty close and that if they aren't there's an HFT out there that's working to discover why and capitalize on it.
HFTs also provide massive liquidity and allow people that trade large positions (Pensions, Insiders e.g start up founders etc) to enter and exit into the market without causing massive waves in the instruments they are trading.
- pron 13y agoI think we should be delighted that the morality of anything comes up among technically enlightened audiences. For years, us engineers have been accused (often justly) for not caring. The value HFT, day trading, and stock traders in general provide is far from clear-cut. When considering the merit of some economic enterprise you can't just take into account its local effects. For example, casinos also provide value: they provide entertainment and they feed a lot of people. But it's uncertain whether our society is better off with them or without them.