Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #802

Text 1 Algorithmic trading (AT) has fundamentally stabilized modern financial markets. By executing millions of trades per second, AT firms act as perpetual market makers, providing immense liquidity that narrows bid-ask spreads and swiftly eliminates temporary price inefficiencies. Consequently, the day-to-day volatility that once plagued human-dominated trading floors has been drastically reduced, creating a more predictable environment for institutional and retail investors alike. Text 2 Proponents of algorithmic trading frequently herald the deep liquidity it brings to markets under normal conditions. However, this liquidity is intensely illusory when it is needed most. Because AT systems are often programmed with highly correlated risk-management models, an anomalous market event can trigger a synchronous, cascading withdrawal of algorithmic bids. In these moments of stress, the liquidity that characterizes AT vanishes in milliseconds, exposing the market to catastrophic "flash crashes" and revealing an underlying ecosystem that is deeply fragile. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assertion in Text 1 that algorithmic trading "stabilizes markets"?