High Speed Trading

Again back to Warren Buffet who considers his share holders as partners in a business.  He does not split the shares of his company because he values long term investors who do not trade in or out of their shares in Berkshire Hathaway.  If it was just individual stocks being traded then I doubt the need, but in a world of artificial instruments (ETFS) and mutual funds the high speed trades arbitrage the differences away quickly and the expense of it all is a testament to the friction costs by which Wall Street lives by. In Warren's world a round lot investment of ten shares is worth 1.3 million dollars. A brokerage firm may make a thousand dollars on that transaction which is in the order of one tenth of one percent commission.  Not much to fund the hardware and quants necessary for a high speed stock trading operation.