MSB Trading - 2020, page-898

I guess I'll I'm saying is what they make pushing the SP in one direction, they may "give back" by slingshotting it in the other direction if the broader market doesn't agree with them. People here complain about high frequency trading and bots a lot. But how its hurting us as retail investors isn't immediately apparent to me. To me it just seems like it adds liquidity and extra trades to accentuate momentum in whatever direction the SP is already going. I'm no expert so my question about why people are so against it was genuine. If there is a clearer downside that I'm missing, I'd like to know about it.

Fair point about the price of trading. But that could easily be an argument for making brokerage cheaper, more than anything else.

Brokerage used to be even more expensive. The old days before high frequency trading, ETFs etc, the man on the street didn't have any where near as much information at his fingertips as today. Brokers and boffins had all the knowledge, and they were able to charge even more for it. Retail investors who didn't have the inside knowledge or the ability to pay for it, were still getting screwed over. Just in a different way to today.