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if i want to buy 1000 bitcoins at $121.46 to hang on to for a while, and while i'm buying the price goes up to $121.50 because a HFT is trying to frontrun my purchases, i'm not going to stop buying, its still worth it to me at the higher price. those few pennies, in aggregate across billions of trades, can add up.

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If you want to buy 1000 bitcoins then cross the spread, take out the best offer, and buy 1000 bitcoins. If, on the other hand, you want to stick a bid into the market in the hope that someone else will cross and take your (lower) price instead... then yes, other participants will react to that.

Explain in discrete steps how you imagine this works. What was the prevailing offer at the time you placed your order? How many coins did you buy before exhausting displayed liquidity at 121.46? How do you imaging HTFs front-ran your purchase? how would things look differently in the absence of HFT?

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