Latency & Infrastructure

High-frequency trading depends on minimizing latency at every layer: hardware, network, and software.

Co-location & proximity

Co-locating servers next to exchange matching engines reduces round-trip time to microseconds. Proximity hosting and direct market access (DMA) are standard for institutional HFT.

Network optimization

• Kernel bypass (DPDK, Solarflare) for low-latency packet processing
• Minimizing serialization and context switches
• FPGA and custom hardware for critical paths

Software stack

C++ and Rust are common for hot paths; lock-free data structures and cache-friendly layouts help avoid stalls. Tick-to-trade latency is measured in microseconds or less for top-tier firms.