Doctor Alexander Wissner-Gross of Harvard has an idea: locate yourself midway between the two trading centers. So if you are trying to exploit pricing gaps between the markets in London and New York, you should put yourself somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
Apparently, floating trading floors is still a bit much for some firms. So Wissner-Gross is going about it the other way. Instead of relocating the trading floor, change the financial instruments you trade to those optimized by your location.
“I'm now working... with real companies on real deployments that don't require you deploy a floating data centre in the middle of the ocean; we say, 'OK, you have your existing infrastructure, that's not moving—now, given your location, which stocks in various locations are you best positioned to trade?'” Wissner-Gross told BBC News.
But surely the floating trading floor cannot be too far off. If there’s money to be made in trading in a certain way—or from a specific location—you can be sure someone will be out there trying to make it.
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