I don't think that building slightly faster software and hardware to run other people's algorithms is really hacking financial trading.<p>To me, if you wanted to hack the system, you would look at creative approaches to make the market behave in ways that it is not supposed to.<p>An example that I'm working on is the idea of an alternate currency where the deposits are invested in socially responsible / clean energy companies etc. People would trade their currency via NFC wallets or square equivalents etc. for goods and services. Meanwhile the investment stays with the same company.<p>This to me hacks the trading system because it uses private contracts & a virtual currency to shift the choice about how money is invested to the consumer & opens up opportunities to make longer sighted investments (that benefit the economy as a whole & the people using this currency) rather than just trying to maximize the profits of an investment fund.<p>From a "computer hacking" perspective, this is just a mash up of different platforms that have recently developed & using it to create the previously only dreamed of "indexed currencies" etc.