On his own message board, regular commenter Frank Coluccio suggested in response to an Abovenet PR recently that we have a latency war on our hands. Indeed, a war has been escalating all year in the financial vertical relating to high frequency trading, next generation networks, and ultra-low latency fiber paths. To refresh my memory I thought I’d go back and find the half dozen or more or so press releases I remembered on the subject since the beginning of the year and look for patterns.
Well, I was reminded that humans have such a short term memory when it comes to news – even someone like me who spends this much time immersed within the news of this sector. It wasn’t even close to a half dozen, and so for now I just collected them – it’s quite a list. I knew this story had been one of the biggest positive threads going on in the telecom and internet infrastructure sectors alongside the economic disaster this year, but I didn’t realize how much of the news we have seen has come directly from it.
Here is my initial list of PRs related to next generation, low latency, financial networking:
- 1/6 – BATS goes live with AboveNet
- 1/8 – 7ticks Ultra-Low Latency Network Bridges U.S. and Frankfurt Financial Markets with Expansion at Equinix
- 2/24 – IPC Expands its Ethernet Connection Service for Financial Trading Firms in Switch and Data’s Chicago and New York Sites
- 3/11 – AboveNet announces connectivity and proximity hosting services with Chi-X Europe
- 3/18 – Switch and Data Introduces its Financial Services Practice Supporting the Electronic Trading Markets
- 3/25 – Need to Know News to Offer Algorithmic News Feed for Financial Trading Community at Equinix Frankfurt Data Center
- 4/7 – AboveNet joins Equinix financial exchange and enhances connectivity options between Equinix’s London data centres
- 4/27 – QuantHouse Turns to Switch and Data for its Low-Latency Market Data Platform
- 5/2 – Hibernia Atlantic’s Global Financial Network (GFN) Connects Rockefeller Group Technology Services’ Customers to Other Leading Financial Firms
- 5/5 – NYSE Euronext and Ciena Partner on the First 100G Network
- 5/20 – Hibernia Atlantic Extends its Global Financial Network into Equinix London Data Center, Adding Another Major Financial Hub Onto its Network
- 6/15 – Equinix Chosen by NYSE Liffe to Provide Faster Market Access for Frankfurt Customers
- 6/18 – euNetworks to Offer New Financial Connectivity Service in Four Equinix Data Centers in Europe
- 6/22 – Fixnetix Extends its Global Financial Network into Equinix New York And Chicago Area Data Centers
- 6/22 – Hudson Fiber Network Launches Exchange Connect with Switch and Data Providing Sub-millisecond Access to the Financial Markets
- 6/24 – NYSE Euronext and Juniper Networks Announce Plans for Ultra-Low Latency Network for Global Trading Data Centers
- 6/24 – RCN Metro Announces Availability of State-of-the-Art High Density Colocation Facility at 165 Halsey
- 6/24 – Level 3 Builds Low-Latency Network Between Key U.S. Financial Centers
- 6/25 – Lexent Metro Connect To Expand its New York Metro Low Latency Dark Fiber Network to Key Datacenter Facilities in New Jersey
- 7/6 – Chi-X Europe Extends Operations into Frankfurt with Move to Equinix Data Center
- 7/13 – Boston Options Exchange to Offer Customers Greater Low-Latency Trading Solutions with Move to Equinix Data Center
- 7/21 – AboveNet to Provide NYSE Euronext with High-Bandwidth, Low-Latency Networking Solution
- 9/15 – RCN Metro Optical Networks Building Exclusive, Low-Latency Financial Services Network
- 9/23 – Lexent Metro Connect Provides Custom Built Network Solutions to Ensure the Lowest Latency Dark Fiber Paths
- 9/24 – AboveNet Announces Ultra-Low Latency Guarantees Across Metro Services Portfolio
I’m sure I missed some, feel free to suggest extra links.
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Categories: Datacenter · Financials · Low Latency · Metro fiber
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Bravo AboveNet!!
When you own the local fiber you can differentiate on performance.
No Type 2 circuit user can compete with this … or do so at your own peril!
wasnt all of this low latency / proximity hosting phenomenon a function of flash trading? which is now banned by SEC ?
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2009/2009-201.htm
all of the [hundreds of millions in] telco and IB/hedge fund hardware thrown at this was to gain a fraction of a second advantage over broader public market. low latency was EVERYTHING when the program traders enjoyed a 30 ms head start, but now its value seems to be unclear and/or substantially diminished. Any traders in the know care to comment?
Thanks for the mention, Rob. This is an area that I’ve been tracking since the 19887-88 time frame, during the original Designated Order Turnaround (DOT) days when AT’s and 386s connected to the exchanges by 56kbps lines were thought to be too fast, and stopgaps had to be put in place to avoid runaway conditions and meltdowns.
I began covering the subject in earnest on my forum back in ’06, with observations and articles posted here:
http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=25993519
In retrospect, some of those stories can now be seen as the genesis of the BATS system we’ve both alluded to. If you click on the “Read Replies” button in the top right hand corner of the page above, it will take you to a half-dozen other stories, mostly preceding the ones you posted about, from the 2008 time frame.
anon,
To the best of my knowledge, the SEC is merely evaluating the situation at this time. During the the interim period, however, I feel quite certain that a number of other schemes are being concocted by the qauant-meisters that will allow traders to deftly avoid any material damage that would otherwise be done by whatever the SEC decides 😉
frank@fttx.org
Correction: The original story post from 2006 I referred to earlier, and the replies that point to an additional six stories, was actually posted here:
http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=23131185
ps = Rob, you didn’t inadvertently remove one of my earlier links, did you? 😉
On Network Latency, an interesting discussion from the current issue of Automated Traders Magazine that I think will interest some here:
Roundtable Debate: Do you consider that an industry standard for latency would be useful?
Automated Trader Magazine | October 2009
http://bit.ly/x88Bk (may require free, jiffy registration)
Enjoy, Frank