[gradschool]

I worked for a company that made dedicated FPGA based hardware for high frequency trading by deep-pocketed customers. You can certainly implement trading strategies running directly on the board with crazy fast turnaround times, but if a retail trader could benefit from them we all would have quit our jobs and become independent high frequency traders. Interestingly, at that point the Linux network stack becomes a bottleneck so you'll want to go for a proprietary alternative whose name I don't remember any more (not cheap), which I imagine might also apply to a Mac, but that's neither here nor there unless you have a server in close physical proximity to the exchange. Meta-advice: If you want to learn about FPGAs as a matter of interest, more power to you. Otherwise, skip the bikeshedding and learn enough about financial markets to find a niche where you might have an edge.