Trading Arcades have had their day

My example was a comparison of a home or office based trader with broker connection via internet for orders and a trader with direct exchange facilities. The comparison you make is a different scenario. I do not know enough about the data link to the exchange to say whether you are right or wrong - though I do suspect that it is not correct given that to join the bid you will need to place a limit and receive an order ID from the exchange and that order will sit in the exchange systems until filled or cancelled regardless of whether another trader on the same link also bids.

Hmmmmmmmmm
Sounds about right
<goes off to speak to the tekky's>

I would be interested in anything that you manage to find out!

Thanks
Jason

Hi All,

I've seen quite a few comments from people about reliability of their own offices vs an arcade and thought I would give my two cents. At the moment there is probably some truth in the statements made that arcades are more reliable, this however is rapidly changing.
Whereas a few years ago, a fixed line would cost you an arm and a leg, your own fixed line to a data-centre is pretty cheap now. Combine this with solutions like CQG-Trader and TT-Net which manage orders directly at the exchange/co-lo and you have a very reliable solution. In these solutions the trading software is providing the failover. With this solution you are using a fixed line, as relialble as any a trading arcade would have.
As with everything, solutions such as TT-Net are expensive because they provide the failover and necessary support, but no doubt this will come down in price.
Once these solutions have their minor problems sorted out and the price reduces, as it naturally will, then I see the advantages that arcades now have seriously reduced. It will be possible to have a full-failover environment running from your office at home.
Does anyone know if a large enough group of traders could get set up with TT-Net anywhere in the City and what would be involved?

just to update this thread , and to fill in some blanks and once more to explain my reasoning why arcades have gone by their sell by date ,as most who have read my post you are aware that after 12 years at arcades i now do my trading via an fcm,within this thread i have not heard one good argument either from an arcades rep or anyone else for that matter ,today my trading is varied i predominantly trade bunds but have also developed an algo or automated trade through x traders autotrader function, my fcm has hosted my strategy at the equinix data centre in frankfurt which is where eurex hosts their servers, my fcm capital worth is roughly 20 times the most successful london arcades net worth and their technology makes arcades tech simply laugable they spend more on their technology than most arcades are worth, my automated autotrader or autospreader trades are hosted direct at exchanges probably quicker than any arcades my fcm said he would gladly take the pepsi challenge against any uk arcades latency.

to continue with from the above post,i must correct myself as i made a mistake in one of my previous posts in that i stated that fcm,s were particularly good for outright traders but it now appears that they are better than arcades for automated and autospreader trading. speaking with a good friend of mine in chicago who was a vice-president at one of the worlds largest clearers,he was adamant when he told me the whole arcade scene had died stateside circa 5 yrs ago and that over 90% of high frequency traders were now solely trading via fcm,s .the only thing i heard from arcade reps on here was they had better connectivity,well it appears thats another waffle from the arcades ,anyway thats the latest on the issue, so chaps we are 5 yrs behind the us on this and bloody stubborn about change,WAKE UP ARCADITES 3bags of desk fees and 20% split lol + tax ........no one in the US is muggy enough to do that!!

Slightly off topic but I was wondering how many contracts you can trade on the Bund without getting any/much slippage. From what you have already written it appears there would be no advantage trading from an arcade even if you are trading big size, is that correct?

@pboyles yes i have to say since i started this thread i have learned a hell of lot about fcm capabilities and they have plowed multiple millions in their data centres and taken most high frequency business from the arcades by offerring cutting edge tech capabilities..to any arcade reps please dont even bother challenging me you can go to eurex,s site and they mention the lowest latency solution they can provide is hosting at equinix frankfurt <5 milliseconds there is no arcade even close to that