Np, lifeisstillgood. I'm busy at work today, so am afraid I can't give full-length explanations. However I'll provide some links to some of the ideas. HFT: Mos

Np, lifeisstillgood. I'm busy at work today, so am afraid I can't give full-length explanations. However I'll provide some links to some of the ideas. HFT: Most HFT strategies involves making a market or rebate trading. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Market_maker&section=6#How_a_market_maker_makes_money https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Market_maker&sect... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_trading#Rebate_trading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_trading#Rebate_trading They leverage being co-located next to the exchange servers and trading algorithmically. Anyone can sign up (provided you have >500K capital). http://www.lightspeedinstitutional.com/automated-trading/lightspeed-gateway/ http://www.lightspeedinstitutional.com/automated-trading/lig... http://limebrokerage.com/SystematicTrading/Network/CoLocation http://limebrokerage.com/SystematicTrading/Network/CoLocatio... Algorithmic Trading: HFT is form of algo-trading, just higher frequency. Most peeps in the WSJ article is probably hooked up to Interactive Brokers via Quantopian doing swing trading (entering and exiting a position on order of days or weeks). Here is a good Quantopian back test: https://www.quantopian.com/posts/system-based-on-easy-volatility-investing-by-tony-cooper-at-double-digit-numerics https://www.quantopian.com/posts/system-based-on-easy-volati... The paper behind the back test: http://www.naaim.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/00R_Easy%20Volatility%20Investing%20+%20Abstract%20-%20Tony%20Cooper.pdf http://www.naaim.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/00R_Easy%20Vola... The gist is selling VXX, the VIX 30-day synthetic futures when a VIX ratio indicates that it is too overpriced. But should give you an idea of how a backtest works and how signal (VIX ratio) is generated. Options Trading: It's harder to explain options satisfactorily in short space of time (basically you can google Black-Scholes model, options, option greeks). There's a whole online retail community devoted to this and probably very cultish and strange to people who don't follow it; but if you want to check it out: (https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/ https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/)