How about threaten to send these hft abusers to hell on earth aka france?
Quote from Random.Capital:
Which timestamp?
There is a timestamp when an order hits the edge of the exchange's infrastructure.
There is a timestamp when the order hits the matching engine.
There is a timestamp when the order exits the matching engine (ie, book update or trade event). The differential between the this timestamp and the above timestamp is not a constant, and will be a function of both message traffic quantity and where in the book the order lands.
There is a timestamp when the golden market data feed for this event is actually generated.
There is a timestamp when the golden feed hits the actual distribution point.
How are you going to synchronize everybody's computers so the timestamp has meaning in the absolute sense? At these timescales, you're not, because it's impossible without massive expense. So now the timestamp is a relative measure between the receiver and the sender. Which means software changes on the receiver side to continuously recalibrate, because non-colo connection speed/throughput are filled with all kinds of variances when talking about these kinds of timescales.
That sure doesn't sound like fun.
Are your Java-based systems deterministic enough that you can count on milisecond-scale repetition? Under a variety of market conditions? Very few are.
But this all begs the question of what problem is being tackled. Because on anything resembling a liquid stock/future, it's easy to get consistent fills if you're simply willing to accept one tick off the BBO. So for "investors", this is all a total non-issue anyway - which means we're really talking about Spy vs Spy - ie, there are no White Hats.
If the concern is having too many quotes of dubious value for the general trading audience on the main feed, there is a simpler solution. Give the ultra-fast folks a unique Participant ID for their fast algos (eg, add "FAST" to their root PID, or etc), and filter the golden market data feed to strip out any update with those identifiers for recipients who place no value on those quotes. Customers can decide for themselves which feed makes the most sense.
Quote from mastertrader456:
Also the ideas of establishing a single, central hub that will update quotes unifromally across exchanges. Exchanges will no longer be allowed to transmit data to outside lines but only to the central market data center. Effectively eliminating co-location servers at each exchange.
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Quote from mastertrader456:
To summarize better. All data feeds will come from the central market server. Exchanges would no longer be able to offer direct lines as they do now. They must send all data to the central market server.
There is the attempt to minimize latency advantages between market participants since the biggest and wealthiest institutions are the only ones able to take advantage of that.