Let's say you and 4 of your friends sat down for a game of poker with Mr. Morgan Stanley. He is the dealer. He deals out 5 cards to each player to make their hand. He keeps the other 27 cards to make his 5 card hand. Sure, someone may get lucky from time to time and win. But, at the end of the day Mr. Stanley will walk away with the whole pot.
That's my gripe about Program trading. About 70% of all S&P 500 stocks now see their daily shares traded in program trades. About 60% of those trades are done by just 5 firms. I think that type of concentration of trading id subject to corruption and manipulation of the markets.