I don't trade but I am interested in understanding what HFT and other algorithmic trading actually is (having been fooled by The Flash Boys into thinking it's something it's not and having been frustrated trying to find out what it really all is.
Algorithmic Trading: HFT is form of algo-trading, just higher frequency. Most peeps in the WSJ article is probably hooked up to Interactive Brokers via Quantopian doing swing trading (entering and exiting a position on order of days or weeks).
The gist is selling VXX, the VIX 30-day synthetic futures when a VIX ratio indicates that it is too overpriced. But should give you an idea of how a backtest works and how signal (VIX ratio) is generated.
Options Trading: It's harder to explain options satisfactorily in short space of time (basically you can google Black-Scholes model, options, option greeks). There's a whole online retail community devoted to this and probably very cultish and strange to people who don't follow it; but if you want to check it out: (https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/)
Any pointers gratefully rcvd