Characterizing HFT as market makers takes advantage of the lay public's relative shallow understanding of market making. The general public's perception of mark

Characterizing HFT as market makers takes advantage of the lay public's relative shallow understanding of market making. The general public's perception of market makers' function is closer to the old style DPM that is more akin to the "thick and thin" liquidity providers than the "fair weather friend" style liquidity providers that HFT's act as; HFT's turn off their liquidity spigot far faster than DPMs. It is more descriptive to call HFTs price discovery specialists, or some other heretofore undefined term, than conflating with a historical term. They do serve a valuable function in price discovery and spread squeezing, through sanctioned, but unregulated, use of different and higher speed access to both market information and market access (typically through direct connection to an exchange as opposed to a SIP-like feed). That separate tier of access is what gives rise to the front-running characterizations. It is functionally similar to the many, many other separate tiers of access enjoyed by large capital holders over small capital holders, but it is in a highly publicized arena of the financial services world, so it becomes a very emotionally-charged topic, on all sides of the discussions. I'm not getting into whether those separate tiers of access are "right" or "wrong" here, or even whether or not they should/shouldn't be regulated. There is likely little argument that financial services and politics (the two are far more intertwined than most realize) should perform as handmaidens to civilization, rather than the pilot house; I say the point of these kinds of discussions in this thread is it has become arguable for many that those fields have seized not only the ship's wheel but the navigator's table as well. I wouldn't personally go quite that far, but there are salient points being made.