Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lowering costs should allow more firms to enter the market, not just pad the profits of existing participants. If a HFT firm is richer because they're smarter, I don't have any problem with that. That's how investing works. Developing smarter ways to analyze data, setting prices accurately, having a market that responds to new information, these are all social goods. I am less convinced that everyone trying to be in…
I mean, I'm all for lowering costs in the HFT industry, it'll mean the company I work at makes more money -- I just didn't realize you were arguing for the industry, not against it. I don't think any HFT firm would disagree with lowering costs to themselves, the same way they'd prefer that CPUs were never upgraded (so they didn't have to waste money buying the latest ones). Co-location is good because it commoditizes…
Where "anyone" = any investment firm with millions of dollars to spend on their IT. :)