The Fast and the Furious : Exchange Latency and Ever-fast Trading

This paper examines how technological innovations drive fast trading investment for both speculators and exchanges and their impact on market. The negative externality of the speed acquisition from fast speculators can result in excessive investment, which is intensified as speculators' speed technology advances. As exchange's speed technology advances, faster exchange makes faster speculators more concentrated; that is, higher exchange speed shrinks market fraction of fast speculators but stimulates their optimal trading speed. As the result, market liquidity is improved but price discovery is reduced. Policy makers aiming to balance price discovery and deadweight loss from costly speed investment may lead to a mismatch between the desired exchange speed for policy makers and the optimal speed supplied by exchange, echoing the concerns of market regulations about market failure on speed arms race