Trading methods have evolved from a manually intensive process to a technology enabled, electronic platform. Advances in technology are having an increasingly large and broad impact on trading and the way in which exchanges conduct business. What was previously seen as a supplement to the traditional pit trading, electronic trading platforms continue to increase in importance and popularity. The advent of electronic trading has meant that a customer can be in virtually direct contact with the market, from practically anywhere in the world, performing near real-time transactions, and without the need to make personal contact with a broker. Electronic trading systems are also convenient for floor brokers on the floor at an exchange for receiving orders electronically.
As a result, the number of market participants continues to increase as does market volatility. Such an increase in the number of market participants may result in more competitive prices, while also contributing to the liquidity of the market. However, potential complications may also result. One such complication may be that updates of market data (e.g., price updates, order updates, or fill updates) occur more frequently than can be processed by the software systems monitoring those market data updates.
Consider the following illustration whereby a client subscribes to price updates on Microsoft stock (MSFT), and connects using a slow 28,800 bps modem. Assume that at a certain point in time the volume in the MSFT market increases and price updates start flowing at a rate that is beyond what can be delivered over the slow connection to the client. Most server devices have an internal message queue, which is an ordered list of messages, from which updates are taken out on a first in, first out (FIFO) basis by applications running on the device. However, as a result of the increasing flow of price updates, the internal message queue for the server will continue to grow until the market's volume burst subsides (if it does subside). Because the contents in the queue will be growing, and the messaging system is obligated to deliver all of the messages in the queue, the client will receive and begin to display price updates that are increasingly outdated.
In some circumstances like the example given above, the trader will be trading on the basis of old information, which is unacceptable and can have disastrous results. In other circumstances, the internal message queue will backup until ultimately there is a failure that typically results in the disconnection of the client, which is also unacceptable and eventually prevents the trader from actively participating in the electronic market altogether.
To avoid some of these problems, traders might subscribe to the fastest connection (e.g., having the highest throughput and lowest latency) available in their area, such as a dedicated T1 line or ISDN. Usually, but not all of the time, a fast connection can help a trader avoid some of these timing issues. However, these fast connections often come at a high price. This high price is typically considered a necessary price to pay according to some traders who trade in fast moving markets, while it is not so desirable for other traders, perhaps those who trade in slower moving markets. Regardless of the type of trader, for those traders who do not wish to pay the high price associated with these types of high performance connections, they are often at a great disadvantage in many aspects, one of which was described in the example above.
Even if a trader subscribes to a fast connection, it doesn't always mean that they will have access to it. With the advent of electronic trading, a trader isn't necessarily required to trade at any particular location. Advances in computers now permit users to be highly mobile. As long as there is a network connection available, a trader can trade anywhere in the world. Therefore, even if a trader subscribes to a fast connection having plenty of bandwidth, he or she may not be always in allocation with access to it (i.e., wireless trading).
Furthermore, even if every trader has access to a fast connection, then the burden shifts to the provider of such information such as the exchange or some third-party provider. If every trader requires a high bandwidth connection, then the provider of the information must be able to supply all of the high-bandwidth connections often equating to higher operating costs, which are then relayed back to the trader. Therefore, giving every trader access to a fast connection will not always result in the optimum solution.