<story><title>How the Robots Lost: High-Frequency Trading&apos;s Rise and Fall</title><url>http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/how-the-robots-lost-high-frequency-tradings-rise-and-fall</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Lagged2Death</author><text>&lt;i&gt;One of HFT’s objectives has always been to make the market more efficient. Speed traders have done such an excellent job of wringing waste out of buying and selling stocks that they’re having a hard time making money themselves.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of its &lt;i&gt;objectives&lt;/i&gt;?&lt;p&gt;Those philanthropic high-frequency traders just wanted to make the market more efficient for everyone? Sure they did. Sure they did.</text></comment>
<story><title>How the Robots Lost: High-Frequency Trading&apos;s Rise and Fall</title><url>http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/how-the-robots-lost-high-frequency-tradings-rise-and-fall</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Mikeb85</author><text>HFT basically involves an arbitrage.  The more competition there is, the less profits are made.  It&apos;s simply a case of the market becoming more efficient, so the arbitrage opportunity is gone.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, consumers of market makers (ie. normal investors) benefit from being able to make any trade in a split second, for very little cost.  In the end, it still requires a human element.</text></comment>