6

[Bunk]

6,021,000 metres / (299,792,458 metres/sec) = 0.02 seconds, or 2 milliseconds to travel that distance at the speed of light, max (would be less if going more directly, through the Earth). So even though bankers will forever be frustrated by the interminably slow and non-instantaneous nature of the speed of light for love of lots of money, there's still huge efficiency gains to be had there that aren't related to the length of the cable.

Isn't that 20 milliseconds?

[TimberWolf]

Isn't that 20 milliseconds?

Oops, yes, 20 milliseconds.

[PAH]

The current leader, Global Crossing's AC-1 cable, offers transatlantic connection in 65 milliseconds. The Hibernian Express will shave six milliseconds off that time.

Plan B idea: Save even more milliseconds by giving the 'buy' and 'sell' buttons less travel before the click occurs.

Plan B idea: Replace the current keyboard/mouse interface with a wii control. They can then do all day. Should feel more natural to them.

[AtW]

I went to a HFT conference recently looking for a job. The hedge fund guys believe a millisecond is a long time - they talk in terms of 100s of nanoseconds.

Good to hear the economy is in safe hands then

[doodab]

Plan B idea: Save even more milliseconds by giving the 'buy' and 'sell' buttons less travel before the click occurs.

Plan B idea: Replace the current keyboard/mouse interface with a wii control. They can then do all day. Should feel more natural to them.

The people who are interested in this sort of thing are using automated trading systems to take advantage of information asymmetry before the market prices it in, they removed button pressing from the equation a while ago.

[PAH]

they removed button pressing from the equation a while ago.

Just need to remove the s that used to press the buttons.

What can go wrong?

Cause of 'flash crash' still unknown but knowledge can help protect you - USATODAY.com