Algorithmic trading is actually commonplace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_analyst http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_analyst http://en.wik

Algorithmic trading is actually commonplace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_analyst http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_analyst http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Trading_Platforms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Trading_Platforms http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/23/business/trading.php?page=1 http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/23/business/trading.php?... Typically this is not a question of "find the secret strategy and make billions!", but rather finding a good execution algorithm to break an order of $billions down into a series of smaller orders for a good average price, or finding and exploiting minute arbitrage opportunities, etc. Algorithmic trading is responsible for many billions of dollars of trades daily; I don't know offhand of particular people who have become billionaires off it, but there are definitely lots of folks who have made a lot of money.