Rival Exchange Execs Agree on Most High-Frequency Trading Issues, Even Flash Orders

from Wall Street & Technology:

>>Rival Exchange Execs Agree on Most High-Frequency Trading Issues, Even Flash Orders

Last night, executives form four competing traditional and electronic exchanges — BATS, DirectEdge, Nasdaq and NYSE — sat together for a mostly friendly and good-natured debate on high-frequency trading issues such as colocation and flash orders, hosted by Aite Group.

All agreed that colocation is simply a matter of evolution, the need to overcome the latency caused by geographical distance. "Every 100 miles is a millisecond of delay and colocating servers equalizes that time, providing fair access to our data center," said Joe Mecane, executive vice president and CAO, U.S. Markets, NYSE.

...

Colocation has existed for years, noted William O'Brien, CEO of Direct Edge, from the days when trading firms on the NYSE floor wanted their booths to be in certain locations so that their order-ferrying runners wouldn't have to run too far. "People should be allowed to make investment decisions," he said, echoing Mecane's earlier comment. "Equality of access is a core component of investor confidence. But where firms are and what they pay should be transparent, published information." Direct Edge has a partnership with colocation facility provider Equinix and uses its facility in Secaucus, where ISE and Arca are also located.