[brudgers]

Currently most parties there take minutes to process messages

I suspect that the energy market is a bit different from markets where being ruthlessly fast might be a good long term behavior. So there might be good reasons for that way of doing business due to the specific nature of the energy market.

For example a limited number of counter parties might make stable B2B relationships more valuable. Or regulatory compliance might require extra steps. Or the messaging system might be noisy.

Or not. I wonder how executives at the trading companies would describe the delay.

[roughly]

One other thing that comes to mind - the players in the financial markets make so much money off that message-processing speed that it opens up a whole lot of options that may not be available to someone without those kinds of deep pockets. We're all still fighting Einstein, but the ability to just throw resources at the problem can surface some solutions that are out of reach when you manufacture something other than money.

[brudgers]

I agree and scale is one of the reasons there's so much money to be made. The NYSE trades over $18 billion a day. A small edge can be exercised many many times.