[radikalus]

One counterpoint is that at the bleeding edge of low-latency, pattern analysis and sig-int become once again extremely meaningful.

Can you execute your strategy faster than your opponents if you go to a slightly more aggressive (less arbitrage-y) signal?

Should you? (Why bother if you're faster?)

For what situations is it worth "thinking longer"? Some straight arbs require speed beyond what you can do if you want to use your HOT "smart" model.

If you work outwards from the fastest "stupidest" trades, there's a vast array of strategies/opportunities that intersect ML/AI, hardware design, network optimization, and so forth -- I do agree that if you're looking at bad, inaccurately sampled tick data, the opportunities aren't really there anymore. (Because there's increasingly more players correcting relative value mispricings)