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I'd love people's opinion on this. From my understanding, HFT (High frequency trading) firms are front running stock orders. NYSE sells them data on stock orders. They buy data center space in order to front run stock orders. That is how the HFT guys make a profit when Day Traders can't make the same kind of profit. Is that true?

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I'm in HFT (as per my handle). Exchanges like NYSE, NASDAQ, etc. sell stock data to firms but not before they get processed. The only way you get front run is if the broker that you submit through (ETrade, Schwab, etc.) notes your order, knows that it's big enough to move the market, and then prioritizes their own action over yours (which I'm reasonably sure they do not). Buying data center space (colocation) means they can react to activity quickly, but only after said activity has happened.

Thanks for the details

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