The True Cost of HFT, Sandy Weill's About Face, Death Star of Finance, and more

Sandy Weill, the former Citigroup chief executive and shatterer of Glass-Steagall says the industry needs a return to the separation of commercial and investment banks, while a recent study on HFT reveals that the practice costs long-term investors $2.5 billion per year.

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2. True HFT Cost?

In contrast to the academic consensus view that high-frequency trading is benign, our research shows that there's a significant cost to the liquidity that they're providing.

— David Mechner, chief executive of Pragma, a research and trading firm, on his firm's study that estimates the total cost of HFT to long-term investors could be $2.5 billion a year

Source: The Wall Street Journal: Study: High-Speed Trading Hurts Long-Term Investors

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio

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