3 ms·
One of the things HFT firms take advantage of is increasing a nanosecond lead into a microsecond (or more) lead by route optimization. If they can get informati
by dsl 10y ago
One of the things HFT firms take advantage of is increasing a nanosecond lead into a microsecond (or more) lead by route optimization. If they can get information from one exchange to another faster than the original order, they can effectively trade by looking into the future.
Many firms invest heavily in direct microwave links for paths normally served by fiber because of the speed advantage.
- kasey_junk 10y agoThose microwave routes operate at tens of millisecond advantages over the competing fiber routes. [edit] Completely wrong comment. The microwave link I was thinking of had a 2 milli advantage over the fiber link.
- chucksmash 10y agoSpeaking from ignorance here but 10s of milliseconds sounds way too high. This Wikipedia article [1] shows the standard Chicago to NJ connection at 14.5ms roundtrip and the dark fiber line Michael Lewis talks about in Flash Boys at 13ms. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_Networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_Networks
- kasey_junk 10y agoYou're right. The microwave link was ~2 millis faster. Just misremembered. Sorry.
- Dylan16807 10y agoWhich is irrelevant here because there is a timed relay server at each exchange.