Yeah, I read that. As a matter of fact I think he's a very smart guy but somewhat wrong about this. Marketmaking is of positive value to society so they get paid for that. The marketmaker is being paid to take some risk and when you hit the offer to buy a share you're paying a little bit to the MM for taking some market risk for you.

Any other trading functions can be thought of as picking up alpha that other, less nimble, market participants are leaving on the table. That's the redistributionist part he's talking about there, but actually this is positive for society also because it increases liquidity also and makes the market more efficient. I also think that in general it's positive for society for the smartest and best people in a particular endeavour to be well-rewarded, because that gives a strong incentive to other smart people to step into the field.

Most of the carping about HFT comes from people who are losing business because they can't compete. Instead of moaning they should hire a roomful of brilliant programmers and write their own winning algos.