Unfortunately, there are a couple types of HFT. At it's core, it just means trading using a computer to execute more/faster trades. That seems justifiable in making the markets more efficient. Where most people including myself have issues is when they get a pass in certain markets to frontrun normal sellers and eat some of their margins simply because their latency was low enough. An earlier HN post that I can't find had a discussion on how this type of behavior can be countered by sending fake buy offers without intent to actually buy, but for whatever reason, that is illegal.
> Where most people including myself have issues is when they get a pass in certain markets to frontrun normal sellers and eat some of their margins
Luckily that is not allowed (nor technically possible) on any credible exchange.
> An earlier HN post that I can't find had a discussion on how this type of behavior can be countered by sending fake buy offers without intent to actually buy, but for whatever reason, that is illegal.
Spoofing, which is what you are describing, is not useful for countering HFT, it is used to change the market price of an instrument by exaggerating the demand for it. This has obvious detrimental impact on any one, HFT or otherwise, who is trying to price the instrument.
