garygld wrote:So, if I am understanding you correctly, you are saying that the volatility of AAPL, for instance, is possibly/definitely a result of HFT?
I don't follow AAPL. I can only tell you that if there is an exploitable avenue for profits, whether it be stocks or commodities, HFT is involved. So I would think it is well within reason and logic to think that they are doing quite well with AAPL. With the entire stock market, the number of firms skimming pennies has dropped volatility. In mid 2008 a slow SPX day had a 10 point range. An average day was probably 18-25 points. That was a very easy mkt to trade, IMO. This mkt now
ONLY moves during the day when machines see orders and rape them. Some don't like me stating that. But the fact is that it is crystal clear, although some still try to claim there are rules against Fed intervention that helps these so-called "banks". Well, there is the National Security Act that specifically allows for the continuity of government which allows corporations, if deemed to be "necessary", to hold problems off the balance sheet. James Grant had in his April 2009 issue of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, state that the net worth of GE was at least a negative $20 billion due to GE Capital. Hmm....Who is the "Jobs Czar" who just sent GEs X-Ray division to China? The "Green Jobs" that were shovel ready was shoveling greenbacks into the banks.
I've been doing a lot of research into this. I am very sorry to say that we have become something the Founding Fathers would say is a very ugly indeed when we think we send our young men and women to die for. Who profits? "The Lloyd" and Jamie Dimon and their ilk? Having been to a few military funerals, allowing what has taken place to happen sickens me when I think of the mothers I saw in tears at a casket of their child. I know some federal agents to and they are disgusted.
So yeah, it's "All manipulation all the time". I think Boesky died, but Michael Milken must be shaking his head over this. Even NYSE former president said to rip these parasites out. That interview didn't last 12 hours online, and a recent podcast discussing how without the HFTs now, as they are the market, the exchanges would collapse and so would the economy, was also removed from a WABC radio show.