Most of the big high-frequency firms were founded by former commodities pit traders who knew their days were numbered and saw opportunity in the growth of elect

Most of the big high-frequency firms were founded by former commodities pit traders who knew their days were numbered and saw opportunity in the growth of electronic markets. They are not suits by any means, but not all are technical or math gurus, either. A good example would be Dave Cummings, former KCBOT trader and founder of TradeBot (an automated trading firm) and BATS (an electronic stock exchange that's grown very rapidly over the past few years). He's actually moved into venture capital recently (http://www.tradebotventures.com/ http://www.tradebotventures.com/). ETA: Though to be fair he does have an engineering background. Some others I can think of (e.g., guys who founded GETCO) don't.