Exchange order types prompt fears of HFT conspiracy

It is not exactly a dark car park – it’s a swanky hotel not far from St Paul’s Cathedral in London – but the meeting with a senior trader from a New York-based high-frequency trading (HFT) fund feels clandestine, and he insists on anonymity. He lowers his voice, and head, as he says: “When I see some of what goes on, I’m as disgusted as anybody.”

By definition, a lot of what goes on in the HFT space is relatively new, and a host of terms have been coined to describe it in recent years, from quot