High frequency trading and quantitative trading aren't the same thing. High frequency is very basic math and a lot of technology to make trades happen as fast a

High frequency trading and quantitative trading aren't the same thing. High frequency is very basic math and a lot of technology to make trades happen as fast as possible. Low latency becomes difficult when you're running complex math on real time data. HFT is generally used by market makers. HFT is the next evolution of day-trading, since all trading is trying to react to news quicker. Quantitative finance is very complex math used to model and backtest data. It is used by hedge funds, long-term traders, and shops that analyze data to find securities that they believe are mispriced. (This is obviously a highly simplified description of the field.)