HFT is a nice scape goat for the finance industry, where the public at large, and the current status quo for that matter, are looking to point fingers at and cry "thats-not-fair", due to the last 18months of joy.<p>... and as we all know its far easier to attack geeks than other more politically astute sections of the industry
It points out the problem, that some firms have faster access to trade data than others, but proposes no solutions. How to make that not true? I think the low latency colo data centers with equal length cable for all might be as good a solution you can hope for.
Isn't this just basic frontrunning? The scheme works because you know about an order that's going to move the market, and you can exploit it better because you have an HFT infrastructure, but the unfairness is still based on being able to predict orders.<p>I'm genuinely asking, not stating. The problem of being able to front-run block trades is a really old one.<p>(Wow, googling "front-running" is all HFT now.)