High frequency trading is the industry term for the buying and selling of shares hundreds or even thousands of times a second.

These trades are driven by complex computer programs or algorithms that seek out and exploit small changes in price, which carried out often enough, generate large profits.

Today business presenter Simon Jack examined the conclusions of a report by Sir John Beddington, the government's chief scientific adviser that looked into the benefits and dangers of high speed computerised trading programmes.

Joe Saluzzi from Themis Trading in New York explained the problem with the computer systems is that "they don't care".

"There is no investment banking, no research, no sales and trading; they are just there to make money.

"That is why the structure of the market has changed so much... and it's not a good thing."

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