There's a difference between retail trader and retail investor. If Joe Schmo is a trader, looking to earn profits in the short term (days, weeks, < 6 months), the odds are heavily stacked again him, with HFT (i am kinda in agreement with Cuban there). If Joe was an investor, seeking out good companies and buying stocks with the intent to hold on to them for the long term (1 yr+) then HFT should have lesser impact. Ofcourse an investor could have made the wrong call, but then the outcome of a stock moving up or down over the long run should be related to the actual performance of the company in the real world, not some alternate universe dominated by hft algos seeking arbitrage opportunities.