to the extent that the market needs speculators, I think it is part of the "goal" of capital markets. a market of only long-term risk-averse allocators wont have the liquidity necessary to create fair prices nor is it likely to attract as much capital when companies issue shares, as a market that has a "healthy" amount of speculation.
I have no problem with individuals or fiduciaries investing on short time horizons because they believe they understand something fundamental the next guy doesn't. But mass coordinated speculation isn't that; it's using a mob to affect the underlying system for profit -underlying equity be damned.
And for all those that say "well Wall St has been doing that for years"...fine, let's address that too. Financial regulations are essentially a history lesson of past failure we've tried to correct. Let's be consistent.
