January 19, 2010
From a financial outsider like myself, and representing a wide class of the well educated, 401k holding voting public, what I have gathered about HiFT is the follwing:
1. That "complex" computer programs are executing very high speed trades on computers co-located within the exchange and,
2. That the difference between their legal and beneficial operation verses illegally front running the market lies in an exact understanding of how the programs operate.
Using as little as my early high school computer science training, I can assuredly say that even given the source code, it is more probable than not that this is an impossible practice to regulate and will abstain from equities ownership until the practice is abolished in entirety.
Respectfully,
Brent Wheelock