&gt;No but we do get it from market makers. HFT has led to a dramatic decrease in the price of market making. Unless your claim is that market making is not something that should be allowed?<p>No, my claim is that market making was made significantly cheaper by <i>electronic</i> trading in the 90s-00s but HFT had very little effect on that.<p>HFTs do a <i>lot</i> of market making, make almost no profit from it and mainly use it as cover for their more nefarious activities.<p>&gt;My point about risk management was about the aggregate benefits of the markets,  not about HFT providing someone risk management<p>Great. So even you agree that if we banned HFT we&#x27;d be no worse off.