Good Morning Readers…we wanted to address several questions that we have been receiving concerning High Frequency Trading otherwise known as HFT. 

The questions have been from individual trader/investors and those who have their retirement accounts managed by a broker.

First let us just say we are not taking a side on if HFT is good or bad for the market or HFT violates any regulations or not.

For individuals placing their own trades via online brokers or even if you are using a full service broker the easiest way to protect yourself against the HFT pushing the price up and to assure you only pay no higher than you wanted to pay is to simply use Limit Orders, this way you know you are only going to pay the price set or better.

As far as retirement accounts serviced by a broker that is question for the broker and how they place orders on your behalf.

As we have always advocated use Limit Orders only.