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Conclusions and policy implications

To return to our initial question: does stock market liquidity deteriorate when HFTs compete? The results suggest that competition among HFTs increases speculative high-frequency trades, which could lead to a deterioration in market liquidity.

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Taking the study at face value, it only says that competition among HFT is bad. It also specifically admits that "As market-makers, they can update their price quotes fast when news arrives and provide liquidity to the market. In this case, the low-frequency traders in the market – the investors – benefit from lower transaction costs". In other words, at best it's advocating for some sort of monopoly for HFT, rather than getting rid of HFTs entirely.

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