Haha! :) Clever point but grocery stores provide utility. HFT is more like if you set out to go buy a whole lot of peppers (because you have a pepper index fund :) and some guy saw you doing this at the first store... knew that was your plan, called all around town placing orders to buy all the other peppers in town and offered to sell them to you for a premium, but cancelled those orders if you declined.
You're confusing the order of operations for this pepper middle man. He can't place an order for peppers contingent on me buying them. He has to buy them or not. Ignoring this key difference fundamentally misrepresents the risk he is taking and the utility (price discovery) he is providing to the market.
It's flawed analogies either way, but a better analogy would be you are a store owner with many branches. The worlds largest pepper buyer walks into your store and buys your entire supply. You call your other branches and tell them to change the price on your own inventory because you are assuming that the worlds largest pepper buyer doesnt need just one stores worth of peppers.
Agree that all the analogies are flawed, although funny. Just as the market made this I'm sure the market will find a solution if it really is a problem.
