And it’s at an all-time high too.

Michael Lewis scored a huge publicity coup this week. But it has nothing to do with your investments. Lewis is the author of several bestsellers about financial and other topics. Promoting his latest book with an interview on “60 Minutes” last Sunday, Lewis announced that the “United States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism, is rigged.”

Also this week, U.S. stocks surged to new record peaks in a broad-based advance. If, as conspiracy theorists have said for years, the markets are stacked against “the little guy,” it certainly pays to be a victim.

Lewis was referring to high-frequency trading (HFT), the subject of his book. He described HFT this way on “60 Minutes”: “The insiders are able to move faster than you. They’re able to see your order and play it against other orders in ways that you don’t understand. They’re able to front run your order.”

HFT has been around for at least five years, and Lewis didn’t reveal any secrets. But he has stirred up the pond. Regulators have known about and largely ignored these developments–and even encouraged them, some say. Now regulators say they’re paying attention.

In brief, high-frequency trading uses complex algorithms, high-speed computers and superfast access to analyze multiple markets and rapidly execute large numbers of orders. In effect, HFT users can buy and sell faster and at slightly better prices than other investors can.

But there’s more to it than that. The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, BATS and other exchanges have created systems and pricing tiers for HFT, charging higher rates for faster speeds and more data. And some investors pay large sums to locate their computer servers close to exchanges so they can make trades milliseconds ahead of everyone else.

What’s more, some high-speed traders have access to a “proprietary feed” that allows them to calculate the most current bids and offers faster than those who get the public feed. This enables those who pay up to obtain valuable information from trading data, including what stocks other investors are about to buy before those orders are completed.

For example, high-frequency traders can buy a stock on one exchange and then sell it on another exchange before the second exchange has a chance to adjust its bid/ask price on the security. The big stock exchanges profit handsomely from the extra-fast access they provide.

Charles Schwab, founder of the brokerage firm bearing his name, has spoken out against HFT for several years. This week, he said, “High-frequency trading is a growing cancer that needs to be addressed.” As he put it: “The primary principle behind our markets has always been that no one should carry an unfair advantage. That simple but fundamental principle is being broken. High-frequency traders are gaming the system, reaping billions in the process and undermining investor confidence in the fairness of the markets.”

“High-frequency trading isn’t providing more efficient, liquid markets; it is a technological arms race designed to pick the pockets of legitimate market participants,” Schwab said, later adding, “Last year, more than 95 percent of high-frequency trader orders were cancelled, suggesting something else besides trading is at the heart of the strategy. Some high-frequency traders have claimed to be profitable on over 99 percent of their trading days.”

The notoriously slow-moving Securities and Exchange Commission this week said it is “conducting a comprehensive data-driven analysis of a range of market structure issues, including high frequency trading practices and their impact on the fairness, efficiency and integrity of our markets.”

How do HFT and this week’s media hype about it affect you? They don’t. It’s hardly news that, on some level, individual investors operate at a disadvantage compared with the big guys. After all, investing is based on information, and the faster you can get and act on it, the better you will do.

In theory, that is.

In reality, individual investors with a longer-term focus have a huge advantage. We don’t have to react, often in error, to small moves in markets and particular investments. We can do what’s best for our own financial security.

Despite his sensational claims, even Michael Lewis evidently agrees. He says he hasn’t changed how he invests because of what he’s learned. “I’ve always been a boring and conservative investor,” explains. “I own index funds, and I don’t time the market … I put it away and I don’t look at it very much. It doesn’t follow from the story in the book that you should flee the market.”

Clearly, high-frequency traders enjoy an unfair advantage. It should be eliminated. But don’t let the debate and the eventual outcome distract you from making money from your investments.