actually, a lot of the best high frequency trading shops out there are small, private, prop trading groups. for example, tower research capital (http://www.tow

actually, a lot of the best high frequency trading shops out there are small, private, prop trading groups. for example, tower research capital (http://www.tower-research.com/ http://www.tower-research.com/) is a pretty successful high frequency shop that isn't a big bank. it was started from scratch by mark gorton, the guy who created limewire. there are tons of high frequency shops making tons of money who are just like this.