I called them scum because they were

[stock777]

Actually, the spread was a side tangent of mine.

But like I said ... HFT front-running firms are a minority.

People keep on making this "HFT is front-running and you can't separate the two" statements which is just not true, which was much of my posts point.

lol, what diff does it make if there is only ONE front running firm , if they are HALF the volume.

you are a poser.

 

[stock777]

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industri...-against-barclays-over-dark-pool-sources-say/

told ya so. again.

the pikers here can resume their nick changing ways . why would they want to continue to use a disgraced , outed moniker?

16,000+ posts and still here, mofo

 

[AlphaRocks]

... and please, if anything here is factually incorrect, please feel free to say where it is factually incorrect.
... HFT's are simply the algorithm that are used by everyone. Flashing the Bid, and Flashing the Ask, or snooping orders definitely exists, but it's not as if ALL HFT is snooping orders. An HFT FIRM has incredibly close space to facilitate direct access, and then with that incredbily geo-physical promixity with direct access to the floor, they can snoop. To snoope, you have to have geo-space, which is incredibly expensive. And that's an HFT firm
...

You're confusing 1) electronic markets and 2) algorithms (algos) with HFT's. HFT's are neither 1 or 2, but they need both to run their operation, along with co-location or geo-physical proximity as you pointed out.

HFT's are firms holding positions for a few microseconds on average and performing hundreds, if not thousands of trades, per minute. They gain an advantage by 1) exploiting data feed speed and 2) trading venues' Order Types (which are not accessible thru most online retail brokers). Some of their abuses include using latency arbitrage (flashboy's scenario); using "spam and cancel" tactics for snooping and probing the market; using "hide and light" to slide a tick and front run other participants; etc. They also like to harvest exchange rebates (payment for order flow). And when the market moves against them they can pull their bids and offers before getting filled, cancelling ahead of sweeps. Yeah, they're the slick masters of the order book, and plain evil.

The reason we have narrow spreads is not because of HFT's, but because we have electronic markets, making all the human power required to process orders irrelevant and thus reducing the cost of trading.