NeXXCom Wireless is deploying ultra low latency microwave radio technology that effectively cuts more than 3 milliseconds (mS) from the fastest fiber networks on the major financial trading path between the financial centers of Chicago and New Jersey. “Today we are below 10mS round trip which is a significant improvement for High Frequency Trading, with further product improvements we expect to approach within 1mS of the speed of light” says Sal S. Benti, Chairman & Founder of NeXXCom Wireless.
“As NeXXCom Wireless has recently joined the Dark Fiber Community, the industry is now aware of its wireless technology advancements for ultra low latency networks,” states Hunter Newby, CEO of Allied Fiber and Founder of the Dark Fiber Community. “Fiber and microwave compliment each other in many areas including HFT and mobile backhaul for LTE and other technologies. For HFT, fiber offers the highest levels of aggregate bit capacity whereas for ultra low latency microwave offers speed advantages with sufficient bandwidth to be most effective for certain HFT applications. I suspect that as trading firms learn more about NeXXCom Wireless’ technology they will begin proliferating these ultra low latency networks around the globe in the not distant future to gain competitive advantage.”
NeXXCom Wireless is very active with HFT firms and the management team has already successfully deployed a low latency microwave network well below the fastest fiber-based transmission available today between Chicago and New Jersey locations and is designing additional networks for trading firms located in the US and Europe. Benti adds, “There is no way to accurately measure the effect of the speed increase but it has been estimated that each 1mS improvement can be worth $100 million to a financial trading firm. Our client firms are highly secretive about their trading network strategies and given the amount of profits involved, it’s understandable.”
In a speech in Beijing last year Andrew Haldane, senior policy maker at the Bank of England commented on the extraordinary speeds that financial instrument trades are conducted. “New trade technologies have progressively raised the speed limit for trading. Today, this is measured in microseconds – millionths of a second. Tomorrow, it may be measured in nanoseconds – billionths of a second. There is effectively a ‘race to zero’ among trading technologists, as market advantage lies in being the fastest,” he said.