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How to slow down a stock exchange

60 videos recommended on HN
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1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2019–2023 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as a quick, visual explanation of IEX's deliberate latency and of artificial delay as a fairness tool.

Tom Scott visits IEX, a stock exchange that slows down trading with a long coil of fiber. The coil removes the speed advantage of high-frequency traders.

“Tom Scott did a nice video [1] on IEX's setup with 38 miles of fiber” (HN, 2019)

1 recommendations · 6 citations · Explainers

7 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@m0rphling Aug 2019 Recommends
on HN thread Goldman Sachs is spending $100M to shave milliseconds off stock trades
Tom Scott did a nice video [1] on IEX's setup with 38 miles of fiber to add enough latency as a mechanism of fairness. Purportedly, this benefits all exchanges after it was successfully deployed. It seems like the incentives are not there for larger, more established exchanges to implement such blanket latency. So, firms like GS see a benefit to this kind of investment. [1] [this video]
Explains IEX using fiber coil to add fairness delay

Citations, criticism and jokes

@anfractuosity Jun 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Companies Pitch Shortwave Radio to Shave Milliseconds Off Trades
The IEX stock exchange uses fibre to introduce a fixed delay - [link] "This 350 microsecond delay adds a round-trip delay of 0.0007 seconds and is designed to negate the certain speed advantages utilized by some high-frequency trader" I watched this short video about it too - [this video]
Short video on IEX fiber delay
@bigmattystyles Jan 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Intruder at the top of the 20 meter amateur band?
Do exchanges like HF traders? I know HF traders themselves justify their own existence by claiming they provide liquidity to the markets, but I've always just sort-of rolled my eyes at that. They only extract value and provide none, in my opinion, tax the profits heavily. I think every exchange should pad each order by a random number between 0 and 250ms, it would take care of it. The company profiled in this video add lag [this video]
@kmeisthax Jul 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Commercial Interests Petition FCC for High Power Allocation on Shortwave
There's actually an exchange that did this. In order to avoid software problems that would negate the slowing, they actually plugged their servers into a giant box full of fiber optic cable. If someone manages to get past that, then they don't have an HFT firm, they have a time machine. [this video]
Shows exchange delaying trades with a box of fiber

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