I've asked our government to solve the problem with high frequency trading
Specifically, high frequency trading could be eliminated by packetising the buy/sell orders into blocks;
Let's say each block is 200 milliseconds (fifth of a second), then it wouldn't matter if "mom and pop" investors trades show up 1 millisecond past the hour or 198 milliseconds late because you'd:
- trading is queued and done in batches each 200 ms
- this automatically makes it impossible to do spoofing, your order is now live for 200 ms
- better returns for investors due to less value taken by HFT (high frequency traders)
- buy/sell announcements are published at same 200 ms delay
- all market participants have time to react, and send orders inside 200 ms, equally.
- those close to the market get less benefit now
- normal traders aren't having their order queues jumped by their broker
This would eliminate any advantage from low latency network links to the exchange etc, and reduce or eliminate the time window for inside trading - say from stock agents who jump the queue to push up the price after seeing a large order come through - due to a privilege position in the network topology.
Some interesting articles about it:
- https://www.worldfinance.com/
markets/controlling-high- frequency-traders-can-it-be- done - https://www.quora.com/Wouldnt-
eliminating-high-frequency- trading-stabilize-global- markets-and-aid-in-the- recovery-by-decreasing- volatility - https://www.businessinsider.
com/the-real-problem-with- high-frequency-trading-2016-1? IR=T
My feeling is that it does not add value; does not help "set a price" or provide liquidity; and does not contribute to a fair market where all investors are on even basis.
ps my trace to parliament.ru (Russian Parliament) below shows round trip times of around 300 milliseconds
➜ app git:(master) ✗ traceroute parliament.ru
traceroute to parliament.ru (91.224.82.185), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1 orcon.home (10.0.0.1) 1.327 ms 0.618 ms 0.768 ms NORTH SHORE AUCKLAND
 2  default-rdns.vocus.co.nz (60.234.8.56) 13.205 ms 13.037 ms 12.992 ms
 3  ext.cpcak4-r1.tranzpeer.net (101.98.0.66) 13.697 ms 13.526 ms 13.471 ms TRANZPEER
 4  ae9-20.cpcak-mdr-r1.vocus.co. nz (101.98.5.22) 13.782 ms 15.875 ms 13.598 ms
 5  be-101.bdr02.akl05.akl.vocus. net.nz (175.45.102.233) 14.621 ms 14.491 ms 14.930 ms LAST AUCKLAND HOP
 6  bundle-10.cor01.akl05.akl. vocus.net.nz (114.31.202.100) 151.262 ms 149.242 ms 149.990 ms SYDNEY
 7  be-202.cor01.syd11.nsw.vocus. net.au (114.31.202.55) 151.126 ms 150.284 ms 151.631 ms SYDNEY
 8  te-1-0-0.bdr01.hkg01.hkg. vocus.net (119.161.84.30) 150.154 ms 152.647 ms 149.808 ms HONG KONG
 9  tvb5-10g.hkix.net (123.255.91.35) 158.102 ms 152.147 ms 151.961 ms HONG KONG
10  ae1-3.rt.mr.msk.ru.retn.net (87.245.232.129) 287.067 ms 287.401 ms 285.871 ms ROTTERDAM HOLLAND
11  gw-mastertel.retn.net (87.245.253.70) 308.557 ms 308.487 ms 307.929 ms HOLLAND
12  217-67-176-53.in-addr. mastertelecom.ru (217.67.176.53) 307.962 ms 306.682 ms 306.723 ms RUSSIA
13  83-69-216-46.in-addr. mastertelecom.ru (83.69.216.46) 307.763 ms 309.648 ms 307.587 ms
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