Approaching warp speed: HFT pushes computers to their limit. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Huge quantities of cash and genius go into accelerating trading to its utmost limit in high frequency trading (HFT), the controversial trading practice that has grown into a significant force in markets in the US and Europe.

This is a world somewhere between finance and quantum physics, where a few thousandths of a second can mean the difference between profit and loss. It’s a fiendishly complex field: get your head around the basics with this infographic.