"When I was trading commodity futures in the 60's, it used to take the Commission Houses around 3 days to initiate, or to liquidate, a large position - plenty of room there to take advantage of them ...

"On a (very slightly) quicker time scale, it seems to me that HFT provides the same opportunities for parasites (ie, me) to make a living ...

"Quite separately, when you next have a few days R&R, I recommend books of reprinted articles by A A Gill - particularly on travel - he has a wonderful command of the English language ..."

David Fuller's view Front running has always taken place and I believe it had yet to be made illegal in the 1960s. Fullermoney maintains that HFT is front running and therefore parasitic, and it is occurring on a huge scale.

Since pension funds and ETFs are among the main conventional participants in the markets, they are most affected in terms of crowding out and extra dealing costs.

Re AA Gill, he is a splendidly witty and often acerbic writer. I did post his article on the UK riots this summer, as you may have seen.