All the remaining HFT firms (there's not that many left) have moved into FPGAs and ASICs as well. HFT is interesting because it's not really that finance relate

All the remaining HFT firms (there's not that many left) have moved into FPGAs and ASICs as well. HFT is interesting because it's not really that finance related at all. The kind of people that work at HFT firms (at least the ones I've met) are exactly people like you're talking about: hardcore CS/EE guys. Some of them don't even care about financial markets at all, they just know how to program some blazing fast C++. I personally find HFT kind of a snooze and not especially intellectually gratifying. Most of the work is just wading through bullshit (write in interface to some random exchange , figure out how to remove an instruction here or there). Imo, things aren't looking so good for HFT. The profits are very slim at this point, and staying competitive is becoming exponentially more expensive. The golden years of super-normal profits and fat bonuses are over.