> When you buy a stock from your banker, you don't care that you buy it at 65 or 65.00001. That's really not true. The microwaves in this case are being used t

> When you buy a stock from your banker, you don't care that you buy it at 65 or 65.00001. That's really not true. The microwaves in this case are being used to communicate between NYC and Chicago to trade products in increments of <1bp. Retail investors may not be as concerned about such fluctuations, but "actual market participants" most certainly do. > Same thing for time, you don't care that you send the order at 15:14:25.0000001 or 15:14:25.5 Again, this is not true. If Fed decides to adjust interest rates at FOMC (14:00:00), they likely do so in a 25bp increment. Market makers absolutely care whether the order is received at the matching engine at 14:00:00.01 vs 14:00:00.5, as such a move can cause large fluctuations in a portfolio's value. > Markets should be tailored to the needs of its users. Agreed. Market makers need to be able to adjust their pricing to reflect market conditions. This is critical to the price discovery process. Were they prohibited from updating their pricing rapidly, they would either cease providing liquidity entirely or show much wider spreads to reflect their increased levels of risk. Clearly such an outcome is not advantageous to the market.