Exchanges also control the amount and degree of granularity of the information you receive (e.g., you can use the consolidated/public feed at a low cost or pay a relatively much larger cost for direct/proprietary feeds from the exchanges). They also monetise the need for speed by renting out computer/server space next to their matching engines, a process called colocation. Through colocation, exchanges can provide uniform service to trading clients at competitive rates. Having the traders’ trading engines at a common location owned by the exchange simplifies the exchange’s ability to provide uniform service as it can control the hardware connecting each client to the trading engine, the cable (so all have the same cable of the same length), and the network. This ensures that all traders in colocation have the same fast access, and are not disadvantaged (at least in terms of exchange-provided hardware). Naturally, this imposes a clear distinction between traders who are colocated and those who are not. Those not colocated will always have a speed disadvantage. It then becomes an issue for regulators who have to ensure that exchanges keep access to colocation sufficiently competitive.
The issue of distance from the trading engine brings us to another key dimension of trading nowadays, especially in US equity markets, namely fragmentation. A trader in US equities markets has to be aware that there are up to 13 lit electronic exchanges and more than 40 dark ones. Together with this wide range of trading options, there is also specific regulation (the so-called ‘trade-through’ rules) which affects what happens to market orders sent to one exchange if there are better execution prices at other exchanges. The interaction of multiple trading venues, latency when moving between these venues, and regulation introduces additional dimensions to keep in mind when designing success l trading strategies.
The role of time is fundamental in the usual price-time priority electronic exchange, and in a fragmented market, the issue becomes even more important. Traders need to be able to adjust their trading positions fast in response to or in anticipation of changes in market circumstances, not just at the local exchange but at other markets as well. The race to be the first in or out of a certain position is one of the focal points of the debate on the benefits and costs of ‘high-frequency trading’.
The importance of speed permeates the whole process of designing trading algorithms, from the actual code, to the choice of programming language, to the hardware it is implemented on, to the characteristics of the connection to the matching engine, and the way orders are routed within an exchange and between exchanges. Exchanges, being aware of the importance of speed, have adapted and, amongst other things, moved well beyond the basic two types of orders (Market Orders and Limit Orders). Any trader should be very well-informed regarding all the different order types available at the exchanges, what they are and how they may be used.
When coding an algorithm one should be very aware of all the possible types of orders allowed, not just in one exchange, but in all competing exchanges where one’s asset of interest is traded. Being uninformed about the variety of order types can lead to significant losses. Since some of these order types allow changes and adjustments at the trading engine level, they cannot be beaten in terms of latency by the trader’s engine, regardless of how efficiently your algorithms are coded and hardwired.
Another important issue to be aware of is that trading in an exchange is not free, but the cost is not the same for all traders. For example, many exchanges run what is referred to as a maker-taker system of fees whereby a trader sending an MO (and hence taking liquidity away from the market) pays a trading fee, while a trader whose posted LO is filled by the MO (that is, the LO with which the MO is matched) will a pay much lower trading fee, or even receive a payment (a rebate) from the exchange for providing liquidity (making the market). On the other hand, there are markets with an inverted fee schedule, a taker-maker system where the fee structure is the reverse: those providing liquidity pay a higher fee than those taking liquidity (who may even get a rebate). The issue of exchange fees is quite important as fees distort observed market prices (when you make a transaction the relevant price for you is the net price you pay/receive, which is the published price net of fees).
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