I am not a high frequency trader. But I have been involved in the capital markets for almost 20 years and I've specialized in algorithmic trading, so I know about HFT and there are a few things in the recent debate that warrant clarifying — first and foremost, this idea of front-running. Some allege that HFTs front-run other players' orders because HFTs have access to direct feeds from various exchanges, while "regular" investors generally rely on the SIP-provided national best bid-offer (NBBO), which aggregates all the various exchanges' order books, but which also arrives with considerable latency (due not to ... (full story)