Indeed, this is a bit of a non-story.

Lower volume customers have lower fixed costs, they generally get much worse quotes (higher spreads) too. The fact is whilst $56k might sound like a lot to some person day trader, it is nothing compared to the actual market cap of the stock.

It also has absolutely nothing to do with the use of HFT. HFT only competes against other HFT. There is nothing here to suggest it has been effecting the price for the small customers (normally this is what HFT is credited at doing well, providing liquidity and removing pricing inefficencies) People hate HFT because it can go 'screwy'.