I'm not really knowledgeable to have an opinion on HFT, but there's something I'm still not clear about.
HFT firms are not that big; the ones I've seen pointed as the largest have net incomes of less than $100M. Why wouldn't the other market participants, particularly the largest Wall Street firms, allow HFTs to ruin their game? The link you posted mentions "corrupt SEC regulators", but why would they be corrupt in favour of HFTs?
Large Wall Street firms view these guys the way a rhinoceros views the birds snatching bugs off its back. It's not a competitive relationship, they coexist.
To push the analogy, sometimes the rhino gets annoyed and pecked too hard, but overall it's happy to live without as many bugs everywhere.
HFT firms are not that big; the ones I've seen pointed as the largest have net incomes of less than $100M. Why wouldn't the other market participants, particularly the largest Wall Street firms, allow HFTs to ruin their game? The link you posted mentions "corrupt SEC regulators", but why would they be corrupt in favour of HFTs?