1) It appears that it may be reducing market makers profits and thus removing liquidity – I am not a big believer in the HFT adds liquidity argument since they retreat whenever volatility spikes and a lot of what they do is jumping in front of a big order.
2) It is possible that their activity especially the way in which their algos work increases volatility and increases trading costs at certain times.
On the other side, while I’m not a big believer in HFT increases liquidity, I am willing to go with HFT increases market efficiency by increasing the speed of information transmission as their algos make connections faster and more efficiently when new news hits the market.
HFT has two potential problems:
1) It appears that it may be reducing market makers profits and thus removing liquidity – I am not a big believer in the HFT adds liquidity argument since they retreat whenever volatility spikes and a lot of what they do is jumping in front of a big order.
2) It is possible that their activity especially the way in which their algos work increases volatility and increases trading costs at certain times.
On the other side, while I’m not a big believer in HFT increases liquidity, I am willing to go with HFT increases market efficiency by increasing the speed of information transmission as their algos make connections faster and more efficiently when new news hits the market.