rats in the granary

Perhaps now the supporters of "dark pools " and HFT at exchanges can retreat to where they belong .......... out of the market place !

In yesterday’s complaint, filed in New York state Supreme Court in new york, Schneiderman describes how closely Barclays worked with high-frequency trading firms even as it was telling other clients that its dark pool was a haven. The document quotes one former senior director saying the bank “was doing deals left and right with high frequency firms to invite them into the pool to be trading partners for the buy side,” referring to long-term investors such as mutual funds.

Barclays “would invite the high frequency firms in,” the former employee said, according to the suit. “They would trade with the buy side. The buy side would pay the commissions. The high frequency firms would pay basically nothing. They would make their money off of manipulating the price.”

Barclays made money from the fees longer-term investors paid, said the former director.

“And the buy side would totally be taken advantage of because they got stuck with the bad trade,” he said, according to the complaint. “This happened over and over again.”

Perhaps someone can tell me why they were ever legal ?

AS for Barclays 3 strikes and your out ? I know i would be !