it was much worse prior to the GFC, short selling or algo interruption through automated trading is regulated in most countries and all the major exchanges have order routing through a separate exchange before it reaches retail or for us the ASX , in my experience and discussions with large fund managers few are involved in active monitoring of live trading platforms due to time constraints and labour costs, even fewer would find the assault by algos as credible, however like most people on this forum I respect the notional view there are corrupt elements .
over time I have changed my personal view on algos largely because they provide some mechanism for price discovery or to maintain a level of activity in a stock it would seem the best methodology is make an assessment of affected stocks and try to buy at bargain prices as it oscillates within a range , it is unlikely this or similar practices will ever stop as stocks move from well undervalue to above value and that is the space Traders live in on "the far right hand edge of the screen" an abyss for some and salvation waiting for others-----------lastly politicians are orators not analysts and have somewhere between little and less than no knowledge of how markets work tending to think its a natural order like water that eventually finds its own steady level after a rock or pebble is dropped in the pond, I hope I am able to have a long awaited conversation with a Quant and perhaps revise my strategy which in turn will mean I am a contributor to the perceived problem -----like they say 'There aint no tooth fairy on Wall Street"
