This paper shows that high frequency trading may play a dysfunctional role in financial markets. Contrary to arbitrageurs who make financial markets more efficient by taking advantage of and thereby eliminating mispricings, high frequency traders can create a mispricing that they unknowingly...

This paper provides a mathematical analysis of how high frequency traders profi t from their speed with respect to the limit order book. We show that their pro ts can be decomposed into two components. The rest is due to their ability to execute market orders at limit order prices and without...