(Source: SNIPER IN MAHWAH & FRIENDS)

After my first few public posts about shortwave trading, I gradually realized that I’d inadvertently created a worldwide network of deputy antenna sleuths. This is the final post in the Shortwave Trading series since the terms of my forthcoming employment agreement will prohibit me from future public talk on the technology of trading. I want to leave behind details on some of the research tools and techniques I’ve used. This is how the sausage is made.

I’ll also leave a list of locations that may be worth watching. Some may be near you. Even if I can’t talk about what’s found in the future, maybe you can? The comments below might be a good place to document new findings until there’s a better place offered.

In addition, following sections will set out the criteria I’ve used to assess the confidence that a shortwave trading site has been found, give example FCC searches, list links to web-based research tools I’ve found useful, give some tips on research techniques, and acknowledge the many people behind the scenes who’ve contributed to this work.

Plausibility Criteria

If you find something that looks like a shortwave trading site, how confident can you be that you’ve found the real thing and not a landing beacon for body-snatching space aliens? Since a shortwave trading site exists to link a local market to a remote market, I can think of two things that set a minimum bar for plausibility:

1. Visual evidence of a shortwave antenna with a heading toward a remote market. Previous posts in this series have shown many shortwave antennas you can use as models of what to expect. Examples have included headings around 50º from Chicago which cover Europe.
2. A path for connectivity to a local market. Visual evidence of this can be a microwave dish pointed in the direction of a local market.[…]

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(Source: SNIPER IN MAHWAH & FRIENDS)

I’ve heard that years ago, there was a stable business selling microwave data radios to local governments for networking their offices. Then the traders discovered microwave and everything changed for the radio vendors. Their new customers weren’t so much concerned about the cost—they just wanted the lowest-possible latency in the radios and repeaters.

I’m picking up signs that vendors in other industry segments are now seeing a surge in their business with the recent interest in shortwave trading. For example, TCI has had a good business making shortwave antennas for 50 years. Then they issued a press release in April 2018 saying they’re now working with “non-government customers to provide HF antenna communication systems that minimize timing-latency.”

Bloomberg has picked up the story of shortwave trading, digging through public records to disclose ownership of a site I described in a previous post. It seems like this is a hot topic!

In this post, I’ll show some recent site changes, document a fourth CME/Europe shortwave trading site I’ve discovered, detail discoveries from my trip up the east coast, discuss regulatory questions, cover two patents on shortwave trading, some miscellaneous things, and finally explain the connection between a sax-playing sheep farmer and shortwave trading. This is a long post and these are varied topics, so please just skip to the next section if you’re not engaged.[…]

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