"I thought this might interest the Collective."

David Fuller's view Many thanks for these compelling graphics. We have shown them previously but they are certainly worth reviewing and some newer subscribers may not have seen them. They reveal not just the rise in HFT but the outrageous surge in quote spam, sometimes referred to in innocuous terms such as 'pinging' or 'flutter'.

I have described this process as the equivalent of sonar, used by factory ships which are wiping out whole species of ocean fish. Millions of bogus quotes, which can be placed and withdrawn in milliseconds, enable HFT programmes to identify orders in the markets which they can then front-run. They can also be used to identify and trigger stop orders, often most widely used in futures markets.

HFT is a triumph for computer sciences but a setback for markets, investors and traders because of its predatory practices.