I have no idea who Dr. Druz is or what he is a doctor of (History, Latin?) but in my actual expereince this is not true, at least for my systems which are based on neural network models. Perhaps he was speaking about those old fashioned systems based on things like If RSI > .8 and Close < MA14 then....? that people used to trade back in the 1980's?
Why would we need to theorize how to protect such a fictional system? Can we not just implement the ultimate fictional security that is impenetrable? If you want me to describe this fictional security, I will gladly do so after you describe exactly how your fictional system accurately predicts future market activity. (Or if all else fails: âIf I told you Iâd have to kill you.â Might work in your fictional scenario) In my opinion that is fairly ignorant. Why limit yourself with absolute statements like this?
Answer 1: multiple Neural Networks on multiple time frames on a massive scale Answer 2: Personal preferance...to each ther own.
You are taking things over the top here with "what if" fictional scenarios. If you could predict a 10-hour window of future market movement as you suggest, and latency is not an issue, also as you suggest, then there is zero reason to be co-located. You could trade from an iPhone/BlackBerry and make a killing. In a real-world situation that is realistic, there is big-bank security which has been very well described by Rabbitone, and there is âeverything elseâ. It has been stated several times that the ONLY reason for co-location is latency reduction. If latency is not an issue, donât colo, drop it and stop beating a dead horse. If latency is an issue then your colo choices are almost infinitely variable depending on your budget, however, most traders will shove a 1U server in a random rack at their BD or Prime Broker, receive an IP address from a network/systems Admin and forget about the rest. As an individual how do you keep your source code safe? Develop, compile, run models, simulations and backtests on remote machines. If you are worried about someone looking at your prints and trying to reverse engineer your strategies based on that â I suggest you find another place to execute trades because there is virtually nothing you can do to avoid that. In terms of someone front-running your orders or internalizing orders without your knowledge â same thing applies, find a legit place to execute and know/understand EVERYTHING about your system and the network it is on. If you blindly plug your machine into a network and donât ask questions you deserve what you get â might be nothing might be getting your stuff stolen. This is all pretty easy â if you have to ask you probably arenât co-located and probably donât need to worry. If you are co-located, or simply in a data center then you should have a basic level of understanding, if for nothing other than the amount you pay in monthly fees qualify you as being an idiot for ignorantly writing checks without knowing what goes on behind the keyboard.
LOL, I wonder how on earth can those long-term value investors walk upright in the age of genetic algos and colocation? I guess back in their age you walked on all fours and snatched dino's eggs... Planned Obsolescence and Blinding with Science is how vendors sell to newbies (incl. OPM managers and their sophisticated investors). Smoothness of the equity curve can only feed your ego, not your kids... If your 3-year average return* is at least 30%, than you are as good as it gets in this business. Psytrade's observation was very astute. I'd take the "stigma" of being old-fashioned any time. *(that's total 3-year return divided by 3, since you may be above such trivialities or attempt to implement cube roots)
Simple answer is IPKVM switches. You buy your server, encrypt the HDD, build to your spec and send to your IT guy to install. He/she plugs in your server, turns it on and emails you an IP address for the IPKVM - everything else is up to you and they have nothing to do with it. Done and done. Anyone colocating a server should know how to protect their stuff or you don't need to colo.