A new paper co-written by the chief economist of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission calls into question the turbocharged arms race behind the controversial practice of high-frequency trading.

In the past few years, the race for speed on Wall Street has accelerated as high-frequency firms compete to get in front of one another—and of more traditional investors—at speeds measured in the millionth of a second. While the race has in some ways made the market more efficient, it is also having less beneficial effects on the market, the paper says.”

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Read Scott Patterson’s full Wall Street Journal article here