[VandyILL]

I don't think that building slightly faster software and hardware to run other people's algorithms is really hacking financial trading.

To me, if you wanted to hack the system, you would look at creative approaches to make the market behave in ways that it is not supposed to.

An example that I'm working on is the idea of an alternate currency where the deposits are invested in socially responsible / clean energy companies etc. People would trade their currency via NFC wallets or square equivalents etc. for goods and services. Meanwhile the investment stays with the same company.

This to me hacks the trading system because it uses private contracts & a virtual currency to shift the choice about how money is invested to the consumer & opens up opportunities to make longer sighted investments (that benefit the economy as a whole & the people using this currency) rather than just trying to maximize the profits of an investment fund.

From a "computer hacking" perspective, this is just a mash up of different platforms that have recently developed & using it to create the previously only dreamed of "indexed currencies" etc.