[osrec]

Liquidity that brings with it random, often unexplained volatility... But yes, I would probably buy the brick, and can understand why people lucky enough to have colo servers do this.

[imaginenore]

Volatility hasn't changed much since the 70's:

https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-62a6ee89ddc1c930de9afb...

[cmdrfred]

That chart is net volatility over 12 months and ends at 2014. I wonder how more recent and granular data would look.

[osrec]

I was going to make the same point. At lower timescales, things look very different. Also the number of orders, cancels and corrects has exploded in the last couple of decades, purely because of algorithmic speculation. This makes the market significantly less transparent, and the weird and wonderful matching algorithms employed by exchanges often get gamed by colo'd traders with the relevant knowledge.

[gumby]

I don't understand what you mean about "lucky". Anybody can. I have had a rack of colo servers which I use for personal stuff for the last 15 years. In an AWS world it's in some ways absurd, but some things are easier this way.

Perhaps I missed the point you were making?

[georgiecasey]

I think he's referring to traders paying for colocation in the exchange data centre.

[osrec]

Precisely, and money isn't the only factor here. Your contacts, your firm's contacts and your trade volumes (amongst other things) can get result in you getting preferential treatment.

[gumby]

Thanks, I could not see that implication. I guess it shows what field I do not work in :-)

[usefulcat]

Regarding colo servers, there's no luck involved at all, just a price tag.

[vostok]

And, at least in the US, a fairly low price tag at that.