Quote from USAtrader:
It's interesting how so many here have the naive idea that the specialist is an enemy to the listed day-trading community. Except on the boards here, where "profitable" traders seem to be everywhere, I have never met a profitable LISTED trader who was happy about the decline of the specialist.
Market inefficiencies of all kinds are what keep profitable traders in business. To advocate the hastening of the death of the specialist (however inevitable it may be at some point) is like advocating for decimalization suggesting that fractions hurt day-traders since they can't get the best price to the penny, and similarly for any of the changes that we've seen over time that have made the markets more efficient.
Bottom line:
More efficient - bad for trader
Less efficient - good for trader
Open to arguments to this...