There are two obvious possibilities: a) These are patterns that arise as a result of software that is being tested. Not likely but very possible. b) They are trying to play time/price priority, but compromise between leaving an order in the market too long and all the risk it entails, and the advantage gotten from getting a fill there on sweeps of the book. I have read extensively on this and no one has hit on two other possibilites. a) These huge data bursts are meant to overwhelm other computers so that the barriers to entry are kept high from would be competitors, or alternatively, scared off. b) It could be a form of messaging system that subtly messages/advertises to other firms. It could be either honest, or illegal but impossible to prove collusion (in whatever the message encodes). The data itself becomes a program. But by far the most likely scenario is that these are programs that serve as "market data ping times". Imagine that you needed to check the health of the matching engines, etc. You pull your quotes if say the engines start to lag by a certain amount. You write a simple pattern, timestamp, pump that into the market, and then have the program recognize the pattern coming out the market data, timestamp again, and then do the subtraction. You now have something far more reliable then ping to see how busy the market is, end-to-end. This could even be used as a trading system.
I modified the post. The last sentence in my post above is by far the most likely. What you are referring to is me being paranoid. Not to be ruled out, but very very unlikely.
nitro the only post that is worth the time it takes to read it. glad that fraud Winston hasn't polluted the thread yet.
just because you're paranoid, it doesn't meant they're not out to ping you. You are posting too soon after your last post. Try again in a few minutes. Is ET every going to get rid of this absurd 2 minute post lag? Have better things to do than wait for the server to wipe its butt.
If this posting rule is absurd, isn't limiting the speed at which a computer trades absurd as well? It seems like you favor any rule that makes only your life easier/better/more convenient/more profitable.