In the fast-paced world of Electronic Trading, it is critical to continue to improve the performance of a trading system or it will quickly become obsolete and stop performing leading to lost opportunities or losses.

Latency is one of the key parameters to measure to determine if an automated algorithmic trading system is performing. This includes:

• latency between the incoming information and the trading algorithm;

• latency between the trading algorithm and the trade execution strategy;

• latency between the incoming trading opportunity and the actual trade and;

• latency between the stock exchange and the system input.

All of these, interpreted, will tell the health of the system, the quality of the network, the performance of the interface card, and the performance of the algorithms.

In order to undertake latency measurement, precise time information is important especially for distributed systems. With the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) described in IEEE 1588-2008 (IEC 61588:2009), it is possible to synchronize distributed clocks with an accuracy of less than 1 microsecond via Ethernet networks. In latency measuring applications, PTP is used for correlating physical variables. Events are marked with precise time stamps in real time and transferred to a central station for analysis.

AdvancedIO provides best of class ultra low latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet FPGA cards enabled with precise time stamp capabilities. Our team’s expertise is honed from years of providing solutions for the Defense, Telecom, and Financial markets. Customers rely on our expertise to deliver superior products on time and on budget.