Wall Street Journalさんのインスタグラム写真 - (Wall Street JournalInstagram)「High-frequency traders are using an experimental type of cable to speed up their systems by billionths of a second, the latest move in a technological arms race to execute stock trades as quickly as possible.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The cable, called hollow-core fiber, is a next-generation version of the fiber-optic cable used to deliver broadband internet to homes and businesses. Made of glass, such cables carry data encoded as beams of light. But instead of being solid, hollow-core fiber is empty inside, with dozens of parallel, air-filled channels narrower than a human hair. Because light travels nearly 50% faster through air than glass, it takes about one-third less time to send data through hollow-core fiber than through the same length of standard fiber.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The difference is often just a minuscule fraction of a second. But in high-frequency trading, that can make the difference between profits and losses.⁠ HFT firms use sophisticated algorithms and ultrafast data networks to execute rapid-fire trades in stocks, options and futures. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ High-frequency trade firms have also used lasers to zip data between the data centers of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and they have embedded their algorithms in superfast computer chips. Now, faced with the limits of physics and technology, traders are left fighting over nanoseconds.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ High-frequency trading is controversial, with critics saying that some ultrafast strategies amount to an invisible tax on investors. Industry representatives say such criticism is unfounded.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ 📷: @gabbyjones.jpeg for @wsjphotos」12月18日 23時48分