Regulation favors large investors over the small

No surprise here:

Professional traders are benefiting at the expense of retail investors due to a combination of technological change and the rules that govern US equity markets, the New York Stock Exchange told a congressional committee on Tuesday....

Joseph Mecane, head of US equities at NYSE Euronext, the exchange’s parent company, said the developments in market infrastructure had created an environment where skilled traders could abuse retail investors, hurting market integrity.

There is more to this than meets the eye, of course: The NYSE is talking its own book, insofar as it believes small investors would benefit if regulation drove trading back on to its floor. All the same, it is yet another example of regulatory capture by the big at the expense of the small.