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How to slow down a stock exchange

Tom Scott · 4M views · 2019-02-04 · 4:39

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Overview

Tom Scott visits IEX, a stock exchange that slows down trading with a long coil of fiber. The coil removes the speed advantage of high-frequency traders.

On Hacker News

Cited as a quick, visual explanation of IEX's deliberate latency and of artificial delay as a fairness tool.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2019–2023

Topics

Tech industry & business modelsNetworking & internet infrastructureInvesting & personal finance
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iexstock exchangelatencyfibermarket fairness

What people said

m0rphling · 2019-08 · Recommendation

Tom Scott did a nice video [1] on IEX's setup with 38 miles of fiber to add enough latency as a mechanism of fairness. Purportedly, this benefits all exchanges after it was successfully deployed. It seems like the incentives are not there for larger, more established exchanges to implement such blanket latency. So, firms like GS see a benefit to this kind of investment. [1] [VIDEO]

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kmeisthax · 2023-07 · Reference

There's actually an exchange that did this. In order to avoid software problems that would negate the slowing, they actually plugged their servers into a giant box full of fiber optic cable. If someone manages to get past that, then they don't have an HFT firm, they have a time machine. [VIDEO]

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colejohnson66 · 2022-05 · Reference

Not apocryphal; IEX has 38 miles of wire in their building. Tom Scott did a video a few years ago about it: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Tom Scott, played through YouTube.

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