One strategy is to serve as a market maker, where the HFT firm provides liquidity on both the buy and sell sides. By purchasing at the bid price and selling at the ask price, high-frequency traders can make profits of a penny or less per share . This translates to big profits when multiplied over millions of shares.
Read moreDo high frequency traders still exist?
Though the percentage of volume attributed to HFT has fallen in the equity markets, it has remained prevalent in the futures markets . According to a study in 2010 by Aite Group, about a quarter of major global futures volume came from professional high-frequency traders.
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