Clifford Asness and Michael Mendelson of AQR Capital Management, an investment management firm with $98 billion in assets under management, comment that much of the criticism of HFT is misguided and add that their firm has benefitted from the reduction in trade execution costs associated with the use of HFT for market-making. They also point out that the retail investors are the “one unambiguous winner” from the rise of HFT because their small orders benefit from the market’s evolution toward tighter spreads and smaller trade sizes.
