NYSE Euronext cut order-execution times 20-fold at the New York Stock Exchange, part of an effort to catch up to faster competitors that have taken market share. With the implementation of a new system for processing orders on the NYSE, customers will see trades executed within five milliseconds, compared with 105 milliseconds previously. As recently as 2007, the time was 350 milliseconds. That change is huge in the realm of high-frequency trading firms, which now measure time by the microsecond, or one-millionth of one second. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124649953114283829.html