{"id":31945,"date":"2018-05-09T16:05:41","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T20:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=31945"},"modified":"2018-05-09T16:05:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T20:05:41","slug":"mystery-traders-using-shortwave-to-cross-oceans-with-less-latency-than-any-fiber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/mystery-traders-using-shortwave-to-cross-oceans-with-less-latency-than-any-fiber\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery: Traders using “shortwave to cross oceans with less latency than any fiber”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor,\u00a0London Shortwave,<\/a>\u00a0who shares this fascinating article which takes a look at\u00a0high-frequency trading firms:<\/p>\n

(Source: Sniper in Mahwah & Friends<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Shortwave Trading | Part I | the West Chicago Tower Mystery<\/h2>\n

Since 2014 this blog has extensively covered the wireless networks built by high-frequency trading (HFT) firms or network providers to reduce latencies between the different exchanges around the world (market makers need fast connectivity to manage risk, news traders also need to be fast, etc.). This epic investigation on microwave, which started with HFT in my backyard, will be fully reported in a book I\u2019m currently writing (in French for now). As I\u2019m quite busy with this writing (and other\/more interesting matters about market structure), I didn\u2019t really have the time to check out what I have been hearing about \u201cshortwave\u201d or \u201chigh frequency\u201d radio. This is the way high-frequency trading firms may use shortwave radio to directly connect widely-separated locations (in short, traders are willing to use shortwave to cross oceans with less latency than any fiber \u2013 like Hibernia).<\/p>\n

But recently I got more intel about the situation (and some fun anecdotes). With some help from the US, I found that a firm purchased a field for more than 1$M to build towers and antennas; with some help from the EU, I got hints about Germany; and I dug into UK public records. I even met, last March in Amsterdam, people involved in those projects. Not surprisingly, at least five HFT\/market making firms showed up behind the shell companies\/names they use to hide. The usual suspects. Above all, I have been contacted recently by someone from Chicago, Bob, who decided to investigate the \u201cshortwave\u201d networks in his backyard. Today I\u2019m pleased to host Bob as a new guest writer on this blog. This first part of the \u201cShortwave Trading\u201d series is released at the same time Bob is talking about what he found at the STAC Summit in Chicago. Next parts will follow soon.[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full guest post by Bob\u00a0(KE9YQ) at the blog\u00a0Sniper in Mahwah & Friends<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a fascinating read, and it’s fun to follow Bob–who obviously knows his way around communications sites and the FCC–put all of the pieces together. I’m looking forward to his future posts.<\/p>\n

I think it’s fascinating that while some are calling the HF\/shortwave spectrum a dead, outdated medium, others are working in the background leveraging shortwave’s strong and unique properties as a communications medium:<\/p>\n