gdb and rr are very useful for navigating a large, unfamiliar C and C++ codebases. Since these languages don't dictate how code is organized, the debugger can be the best tool for guiding you through the relevant code for your problem.
Sometimes identical products trade at different venues, often different products at different venues are highly correlated. HFTs reduce the friction of value transfer between these many different markets. They are, in a sense, building the neurons that make up the global economic central nervous system. It's a natural and healthy market phenomenon. The benefits are systemic, which requires some perspective to appreciate. In the course of a decade or two, HFT has permanently cemented itself into the fabric of the finance.
All this talk about front running is uninformed utter nonsense.
Your comment is prescient, I think. The race against the clock has begun. If we haven't seen the last of these extremist groups, then they're on the fast track to the crypto underbelly of the internet (whether they realize that or not). I hope the inevitable federal and international crackdown sees wide success before these groups go dark.
I support "this kind of censorship" because I'm not an extremist and don't like extremism, especially the violent kind. I hope even the ISPs get involved if that's what it takes to prevent an insurrection from any expression of extremism.
I may reconsider this position if they ever "come for me"; but frankly, for now, I value stability and longevity for our nation more than its abstract ideals about freedom of speech.
> I'm pretty sure the way they make money is to flash out orders and see if there is a response for the now unavailable security
No.
Market event A is seen to correlate strongly with market event B. The correlation is so obvious that multiple participants compete to make the B trade first in reaction to A. It's part of having a healthy market, electronic or otherwise.