Can I Trade Stocks at Low Latency?

Can I trade stocks at low latency myself? 1. Reach out to Equinix, get a rack in NY4 with 5kVA power and about 4 cross connects 2. Reach out to Arista and get a 7130 low latency switch 3. Buy a Xilinx card that supports Onload, put it in a server, do this x2 for reliability 4. Buy a time server to handle PTP so you know exactly when the market opens 5. Become a member of the NYSE 6. Pay for market data 7. Get an Internet connection so you can connect your server to deploy strats You’re looking at six to seven figures of set up costs and about that in yearly running costs. In other words, it’s not happening. Similar pains will exist for trading FX with some bank like Citi, or futures with the CME.

A text-based meme lists the elaborate infrastructure and huge costs required to trade stocks with extremely low latency. The punchline is that an individual trader would need specialized hardware, exchange access, market data, and millions in setup and annual expenses, making the idea impractical. It is shared as a sarcastic reaction to ambitious low-latency trading plans.

• @jemalloc / 1556 2024-04-16