Singapore Exchange and The World’s Fastest Trading Engine
Last week, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced that it will be investing $250 million in a new technology infrastructure, which will include a $70 million trading system that the exchange claims will be the world’s fastest, with round-trip execution times of just 90 microseconds (that’s just 90 millionths of a second).
In addition to the trading system, the Asian exchange will be investing in a global network of trading hubs, enabling super-fast connectivity to their trading engine from financial centers around the world.
Given that the US and European regulators are starting to clamp down more heavily on high frequency traders (HFTs), this is a canny move by the Singapore Exchange. They can no doubt see that high frequency and algorithmic trading is not going away, and if the regulators make it too difficult for the HFTs to ply their business in the US and in Europe, then those traders are just going to expand their activities outwards in an Easterly direction.
One of the things that the traders will need to watch out for however is the fact that liquidity on Asian markets is currently a lot less than it is on the US and European markets. So there is a danger that buy or sell orders generated in high volume may not get executed, leaving traders with uncovered positions and unforeseen exposure.
However, the main rallying cry of the HFTs is that their activities improve the efficiency of markets by providing additional liquidity. Their argument is that high frequency trading strategies enable institutional and retail orders to get filled faster, with tighter bid/ask spreads.
Only time will tell whether this huge investment by the Singapore Exhange will attract high frequency traders in droves. If the exchange gets it right, it could change the entire face of the Asian equities markets and trigger a massive shift in trading volume and liquidity from the US and Europe, to Asia. Interesting times ahead, no doubt.
Related posts:
- Rogue High Frequency Trading Systems
- How To Make Money Fast Through Managed Forex Trading
- Forex Option Trading is a Two-Edged Sword
- Best Day Trading Strategies
- Do Forex Trading Secrets Exist?
- Trading Options – What Does Trading Stock Options Really Mean?
- Options trading strategies | the covered call
- Good Things Happen in Penny Stocks Trading
- Make Fast Cash With Search Engine Optimisation
- What Are The Fastest Ways To Get Cash?
Comments
Leave a Reply

