where can I learn more about all this? Reference sites would be appreciated.
it's a bit like hacking - a lot of is private knowledge and public information is usually inaccurate / unimportant. best bet is
http://www.nuclearphynance.com . the boom in the HFT world is mostly over though. the social utility of HFT is remarkably similar to miners. it is conceivable that cryptoexchanges can outpace other exchanges, but not over the internet.