Keeping pace with a rapidly changing derivatives market

Speed has always been a defining feature of the trading process, especially across the very liquid equities and fx markets. Moving from the open cry through to the information age and high-speed computing, the quicker an order could be placed and the faster information could be gathered, the more competitive advantage a firm could gain over its rivals. As the new millennium kicked off, vast sums were being bought and sold in milliseconds, and an interminable arms race seemed to have become an industry staple, with trading firms racing towards zero latency.