Advantages and Disadvantages of HFT

The main benefit of high-frequency trading is the speed and ease with which transactions can be executed. Banks and other traders are able to execute a large volume of trades in a short period of time—usually within seconds.
HFT has improved market liquidity and removed bid-ask spreads that would have previously been too small. This was tested by adding fees on HFT, which led bid-ask spreads to increase. One study assessed how Canadian bid-ask spreads changed when the government introduced fees on HFT. It found that market-wide bid-ask spreads increased by 13% and the retail spreads increased by 9%.

It has replaced a number of broker-dealers and uses mathematical models and algorithms to make decisions, taking human decisions and interaction out of the equation.
Allows large companies to profit at the expense of the little guys. Its so-called ghost liquidity is also a source of criticism: The liquidity provided by HFT is available to the market one second and gone the next, preventing traders from actually being able to trade this liquidity.

Last updated 8 months ago