so algorythms and hft are legal since they don't prevent anyone or any other automated program from being able to execute ''the best priced order''.

They apparently don't care about the full scale of side effects such programs can cause like as causing a low volume stock to ''spiral down'' by making cross-program trades and such. The opposite is also true... Combine HFT/algorythms to short trade, poor market sentiment, panic sell, cross hft-algorythms transactions and you have a cocktail that can completely ruin the logical sense of ''realistic market value'' and even ''fair trade''. Yet they don't seem to bother about that at all... One can even wonder who can be behind these algorythms, how deep their pockets are, what are their intends and how far can they go on a single stock and on the market in general... Let's conspire this to the maximal scenario... I suspect the killer is Professor Plum Sauce (the Chinese government) in the Ballroom (using HFTs) with the dynamite (infinite funds)