Co-location (colo) for trading software

Discussion in 'Automated Trading' started by Allistah, May 1, 2013.

  1. Well, he may have - but he is talking out of his mental framework here, as sad as it is. Yes, he may have experience in HFT - but he is seemingly a one trick pony unable to see anything outside his HFT universe. Calling that a limited mental capability is not insulting as it is obviously the truth. He also has limited IT knowledge in general as he obviously does not know the real meaning of some of the terms he is dealing this. He may be smart, damn, he may be the worlds smartest HFT programmer. Sadly that does not invalidate my statements.
     
    #31     May 2, 2013
  2. ofthomas

    ofthomas

    get a backup DSL connection and place your router and modem on UPS as well... that is what I have... my cisco(and I dont mean linksys) ISR allows me to failover from Cable to DSL...it works great, my cable goes out like clockwork every day at around 4AM EST... sometimes I am up working at that time, the most annoying thing, so I got DSL... when I lost power during sandy, DSL was still running... cable was out...
     
    #32     May 2, 2013
  3. ofthomas

    ofthomas

    you are correct about this, the context is important... but it would be ignorant to classify co-lo just to a single context... in trading co-lo just means proximity to your source (in this case the pieces of the puzzle that make LLT/HFT take place)... which is why you co-lo per venue..
     
    #33     May 2, 2013
  4. Does not work. This works possibly if you are local - as I said. I.e. live in chicago or the area.

    I had:
    * Hours - rarely - with REALLY crappy international routing on all 3 connections I had at this time.
    * A one time incident with 2 days of no power in winter.

    I have a backup. But is it worth fighting for that when I can just get a computer close to the exchange (i.e. in chicago) and not worry about all that at all? AND improove my latency from visible (120-130ms) to something more usable?

    The single answer is no. I already have invested a LOT into my infrastructure. You talk about a USV - nice. Check Eaton 9355, that is in my basement, in the 15kw configuration. I can not place the router on USV - I can place thee house for USV, cook and the thing will still run more than an hour.

    But what for?
     
    #34     May 2, 2013
  5. I can add to that. I Know a guy - who recently closed for reasons unrelated - who oprated a colocation facility in new York. NOT in the exchange and had a LOT of trading machines rented out to prop shops. And shops putting machines to him.

    The business was good (got ruined by his ex who sabotaged his business).

    Colocation. They got the machines into a setup CLOSE to the exchange and close enough for them.

    Saying colo in trading is only with the exchange is - ignorant like hell.
     
    #35     May 2, 2013
  6. gmst

    gmst

    Maybe years of spending time in an IT role has caused this impression, but you are absolutely wrong as far as the definition is concerned. Specifically in trading: co-lo means leasing racks in a specific building just as garachen described it. Anything else is proximity hosting. This site is about trading not general computing lingo, so lets not mix the two up.

    Now MB Trading or other brokers can market their proximity hosting services the way they wish to. But if anyone believes that just having a dedicated server somewhere in Chicago makes you co-located, this understanding is wrong.

    But I guess now this discussion is going downhill very quick because everyone is arguing about definitions. :D
     
    #36     May 2, 2013
  7. ofthomas

    ofthomas

    keep in mind I am not referring to the trading setup, I am just referring in general...

    I have a NG GenSet for the house, It power a subpanel for the stuff I care about, manual switch though... I have a backup LP GenSet, in case the the NG is cut off for whatever reason... I was out about a 1.5 weeks out of power due to sandy... it was business as usual for me... internet and all... cable was out, but hey... hulu worked just fine... my work continued, just because my area was out didnt mean the work stopped from taking place.. specially with the BCP's from the job active...

     
    #37     May 2, 2013
  8. garachen

    garachen

    NetTecture, you seem to make a lot of assumptions about me. Not sure why. Yes, my company (which I own) does a reasonable amount of HFT but, personally, I and many of my employees manually trade all day every day.

    It sounds like you know many of the components that make HFT possible. If you know your way around Linux and exactly what you are doing you can put together a sub 10 mic system in about a month. I've done it and I know other people have done it. But it's very atypical. Anyway, not going to post a link here but if you ever want to try it I'll point you to the site of someone else who has done it very cheaply and who goes into reasonable detail about it.

    I avoided HFT for years. But, frankly, I wanted to become richer faster so now about 1/2 my volume is HFT (futures only). It's a path many of my colleagues have followed.
     
    #38     May 2, 2013
  9. Thank heaven Poland has a better infrastructure than the US and we dont ahve 1.5 week outages. Oh man.

    I consider investing into a generator but so far it jut was not worth it. Power failures here in general last a minute or five. The 2 days was a high power cable taken down by a tree that should not have been there in winter.

    1.5 weeks - oh man. ;) Try going to a country with infrastructure ;)
     
    #39     May 2, 2013
  10. ofthomas

    ofthomas

    nope, again... read your own definition... which matches my own... what you guys are adding, which is only to financial services, is that is specific to a building.. when it is not...

    any server in any data center, when leasing/renting space, is being co-located...

    any server in financial services in NY4 or NJ2 or new aurora facilities is also being co-located... or I can even be hosting my algo's if I was to lease their servers and not place my own...

    considering that I have worked on the actual contracts for signing up both services, I can tell you the terms is one for all... with different context per line of business...

     
    #40     May 2, 2013