July 9, 2010
SEC needs to ban both the practice of "flash trading" and "high-frequency" trading. Both of these unfairly reward those who essentially are "stealing" from the rest of the investment community, albeit in very small increments. None-the-less, they are skimming off the top and their gain is other investors loss. As a small investor, I look at high-frequency trading as someone stealing the change from a grocery store transaction because they happen to be quicker at grabbing it off of the counter than I am. Flash trading has the effect of putting the counter closer to them than to me!
Small investor confidence in the market is very low now due to such practices. Now, these traders may say it is perfectly legal but it is not a moral practice. They are stealing and they know it- our screwed up gov't has just not deemed it "illegal" yet! (why?- one wonders….)
Best Regards,
Bob Berg