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We obviously can have liquidity on in-between timescales, because we had it before modern HFT trading, right?

The average person may be overly paranoid about HFT, but it doesn't make sense to say they benefit from it, because they are not going to be in a position where they benefit from an execution in a fraction of a second.

Price improvement of fractions of a penny has gotten silly too. It's easy to think of it as more significant than it is, until you figure it as a percentage (or the spread for that matter).

It's kind of like how ultra-sensitive people are to gas prices...



Before HFT, we had enormous spreads and expensive trades on many instruments in many markets.

Smaller spreads lower costs for everyone: institutional, retail etc.


When exactly are you thinking of? Are you old enough to remember before decimalization? Do you consider that "enormous"?




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