Re:Insights into High Frequency Trading from the Virtu IPO [...
by ForHackernews on Saturday May 06, 2017 @12:45PM
(#14281088)
> Now, anyone can access it.
Where "anyone" = any investment firm with millions of dollars to spend on their IT. :)
Re:Insights into High Frequency Trading from the Virtu IPO [...
by consz on Sunday May 07, 2017 @08:40AM
(#14285156)
Yes, things costs money. It costs on the order of several thousand per month (on the upper end), not millions of dollars -- moreover, this is commensurate with the cost of actually running such a data center (which the exchange sponsoring the colo typically does). I would also argue that, for anyone who actually receives any benefit from being colocated, several thousand dollars a month in operating costs is not prohibitively expensive.
Co-location is good because it commoditizes the closest location to the exchange. Speed always matters, even in randomized auctions, even if you have artificial latencies added to your order, even if... Without co-location done the way it is now, you get into situations where a single firm buys the actual nearest location, and has a monopoly over being the fastest competitor. Now, anyone can access it.