It really depends on the edge that needs to be captured. If we're trading a low latency edge in SP500 E-Minis, then not only is C++ better but it might be the o

It really depends on the edge that needs to be captured. If we're trading a low latency edge in SP500 E-Minis, then not only is C++ better but it might be the only option to successfully capture that edge. On the other hand it we have some niche edge in a smaller market that's less speed competitive, Java might very well be the better choice given that we might be able to capture that edge with 8us tick to trade latency. So the answer totally depends on what edge you're trying to capture. There are still a large number of edges where Java is good enough. GC is not really a problem, either using a commercial JVM or coding without much garbage and large memory.