In just the past several weeks, multifaceted debates over new concepts in high-frequency trading (HFT) of various instruments have emerged rapidly. HFT firms are developing new technology so fast that regulators are uncertain what, if anything, to do. Widening probes by government and self-regulatory authorities are barely scratching the surface and, instead, highlight the confusion extant. The myriad technology changes and developments seem far ahead of widening probes currently being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Justice Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.1

Important legal and regulatory issues are constantly being raised as the existing framework of regulations, emphasizing disclosures and accountability, are being severely tested. Efforts attempting to analyze the situation, by regulators at present, and most likely the courts later on, will first have to grapple with definitional structures which at the moment seem to be fostering a debate similar to arguments about the parameters of an amoeba. Indeed, we are presently witnessing a significant battle in the New York Supreme Court as certain components of this debate are being illuminated in the litigation between the New York State Attorney General and Barclays PLC; Barclays’ responsive motion to dismiss filed on July 24, 2014, is particularly emphatic in its assertion of the harmony (and therefore innocence) of high-frequency trading with more traditional trading mechanisms.2

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