Algorithmic surrealism: A slow-motion guide to high-frequency trading
Please note: Part 1 of this essay appeared in the Feb 2015 edition of Contributoria . It is published and modified here under a Creative Commons license. PART 1 (3500 Words) A 900 million microsecond primer on high-frequency trading In the time it takes you to read this sentence, a high-frequency trading (HFT) algorithm, connected to a stock exchange via “low latency” trading infrastructure, could make, perhaps, 1,000 trades. I say 'perhaps', because it really depends on how long you pause on those commas I put in the sentence. If you’re an individual with great respect for commas you might give the algorithm a chance to throw in a few hundred more orders. Let’s just clarify this. That means computers owned (or leased) by a firm somewhere can 1) suck in data from a stock exchange, 2) process it through a coded step-by-step rule system (algorithm) to make a decision about whether to trade or not, 3) send a message back to the exchange with an order for shares of ownership in a ...