It has absolutely nothing to do with front running. Front running has a very specific definition in market regulation.
Front running refers to a broker placing his orders (i.e. the BROKER'S orders) in front of his customer's orders. This is a violation of fiduciary duty, SEC regulations, FINRA regulations. When the broker gets a customer order, it must be given priority over the broker's proprietary trading. This has been in place for decades, well before trading was electronic.
If an HFT (or any other trader, regardless of speed) places an order into the limit order book of an exchange or other trading venue AHEAD of another customer of that exchange, that is not front-running. That is the normal and correct functioning of the markets, which operate by price-time priority.
tl;dr - trading faster or more frequently than other market participants (who are not your brokerage customers) is not front running.
Front running refers to a broker placing his orders (i.e. the BROKER'S orders) in front of his customer's orders. This is a violation of fiduciary duty, SEC regulations, FINRA regulations. When the broker gets a customer order, it must be given priority over the broker's proprietary trading. This has been in place for decades, well before trading was electronic.
If an HFT (or any other trader, regardless of speed) places an order into the limit order book of an exchange or other trading venue AHEAD of another customer of that exchange, that is not front-running. That is the normal and correct functioning of the markets, which operate by price-time priority.
tl;dr - trading faster or more frequently than other market participants (who are not your brokerage customers) is not front running.