This comment from the article pretty much sums it up:
"This study treats correlation as though it were cause and effect. The fact that HFTs choose to trade stocks with bid-ask spreads of two cents (instead of one cent) does not mean that the HFTs have made that spread larger.
The high liquidity provided by HFT has to let anyone with a market order receive a more favorable price than they would in the less-liquid market without HFT. HFT is simply improvement of the labor of market-making through the use of machines. For the past three hundred years, virtually every mechanization which improved the productivity of labor was fought by the establishment. This is no different."
Comments
This comment from the article pretty much sums it up:
"This study treats correlation as though it were cause and effect. The fact that HFTs choose to trade stocks with bid-ask spreads of two cents (instead of one cent) does not mean that the HFTs have made that spread larger. The high liquidity provided by HFT has to let anyone with a market order receive a more favorable price than they would in the less-liquid market without HFT. HFT is simply improvement of the labor of market-making through the use of machines. For the past three hundred years, virtually every mechanization which improved the productivity of labor was fought by the establishment. This is no different."