Trading A lot has been made about insider trading and short-selling, but a far greater concern for everyone in the stock market should be high frequency trading. Apparently these types of trades make up about two-thirds of the action on the stock exchanges with the average stock being held for 23 seconds. Until our toothless securities regulators put an end of this practice, we're all going to have to live with price volatility. Small wonder why trends don't make a lot of sense anymore ... it's all short momentum plays. Just check the amount of 100 lot trades done daily on this stock.