The first generation of programs had zero interest in news, and what I would categorize as generation 1.5 has started to take news into account to a very slight degree IMO and from what I have found. The next gen will indeed take news into account to a larger degree, but these programs are in their infancy and are not yet being used by any of the big boys that I know of - at least that is how I see things.
I doubt that there is much collusion going on, though some would say that makes me naive....but I have spent much effort in this area and from what I see it is more a case of too many math-heads who do not understand trading/investing, just math and gaining many small gains using the same math formulas with very little variances and accumulating many, many winners after winners...
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