Comment Re:Frequent auctions (Score 1) 382
defeating the HFTs basically comes down to adding a delay to multi-exchange transactions such that the transaction reaches each exchange at the same time.
Budish shows in his paper how that is not true. Basically, it works only if very little of the total volume is on a delayed exchange.
The stock exchanges are engaged in the same sort of crap with the HFTs, selling them special access and trade types that other investors do not have.
I don't see a problem with that. Back in the old days of floor trading, the floor traders had special access everyone else lacked. And they behaved very badly compared to what we now see with HFTs.
If our regulatory agencies were more competent, this would have been dealt with years ago instead of letting it fester as long as it has.
They are careful, not incompetent. The gut reaction of lots of people is that any middleman is a parasite. The reaction in the American West to the rise of hardware and lumber specialists during the late 19th century (fueled by general stores) is an excellent example with similar popular political outrage behind it. I'm glad the regulators did nothing about it.