HFT heydays are past?

A couple of interesting articles on Bloomberg recently reporting on the decline of HFT profitability in US. A saturation/optimal point has been reach with the current environment. Speed bumps (made famous by IEX) have also been increasingly introduced to blunt the edge of HFTs. According to Tabb Group estimates, high-speed traders recorded a revenue drop from $7.2B in 2009 to $1.1B in 2016. HFT outfits are branching out to market making and execution specialists services.

A Reuters article also indicated regulators in Japan, Europe and India are also looking at limiting HFT activities in their markets. HFT accounted for around 70% of orders placed on JPX in 2016.

Link: Speediest Traders Becoming Less Welcome in Currency Markets
Link: What Do Berkshire, Twitter and Alibaba Have in Common?
Link: Japan to tighten regulations on high-frequency traders