The fact that financial industry as a whole just recently in the 2008/2009 crash and it's aftermath were able to extract obscene amounts of money from our governments (i.e. us) to keep the world's finance system from collapsing makes the suspection that most financial products purely based on a material advantage (be it monetary or technological) are akin to a scam very reasonable.
I think you're dangerously conflating HFT with the financial industry as a whole. For example, iIn 2012, the whole of HFT firms earned $1.25 billions in profits. In the same year, Goldman Sachs alone earned $7.5 billions.
I think you're dangerously conflating HFT with the financial industry as a whole. For example, iIn 2012, the whole of HFT firms earned $1.25 billions in profits. In the same year, Goldman Sachs alone earned $7.5 billions.
HFTs, good or bad, are not the big players.