Why is protecting the interests of hedge funds and investment banks important enough it needs a special rule? This isn't a rule that will benefit the little guy; it strictly benefits the biggest fish.

> Can you not see how it's bad in the specific case where they already issued the order to all exchanges but your order gets processed first because you used a different cable?

To be clear, your concern is strictly that if a hedge fund is buying a very large amount of stock, this will cause the price to move against them as people react to it, and you think they should get a full half second (an eternity at the speed of the modern market) to buy as much as they want before people are legally allowed to react?

That sounds like a terrible idea, and in the specific case you list: No, I don't see why that's bad. I don't see why anyone except a large hedge fund or investment bank would.

Further: Once the order hits the market, you're saying there should be a half second window during which no one can do anything except the hedge fund. But as soon as that half second window closes, there will be a race to (finally) react. Which will be won by...the HFT firms, right? Won't they be able to, hypothetically, get their rSo even if we accept your premise, isn't this just shifting the victims around without fixing anything?