The last one is the investor

Arbitrage strategies can be divided into 2 types: simple (obvious) and complex.

The complex ones, where there are two or three assets with a complex correlation, can be detected only by experienced trader. He can spend a lot of time to calculate required parameters for its configuration. In most cases a complex parameters selection appears in pair trading and is a completely different topic.

1 second = 1000 milliseconds

1 millisecond = 1000 microseconds

At the same time, obvious strategies are on the surface, very comprehensive, and are used in work for the reasons of simplicity and accessibility or lack of experience. In this regard, these strategies are used by a large number of traders. What to do in a situation like this, how to get a profit with the overflowing number of rivals? Your speed may become your main advantage.

The speed of trading bot, that was made with LUA, may vary from 150 to 700 milliseconds. Is it enough for index pair trading of ES and SPY assets?

How will your spread look in that case?

April 24, 2023

Well yes, your delta and profit will be very low, but at this exact moment it will be intercepted by approximately 10 teams of good quality software, with well-known “StockSharp”. It will be quite tough for them, because their average speed, that is more stable, lays in range between 10 and 120 milliseconds.

Being the first in the market depth, if you are a market-maker or intercept at the exact moment of bids appearance. Speed - an advantage that helps you to take the delta and the profit.

To be the first right now it is not enough to automate the parameters of the trade. We need a speed of algorithm and software execution in the range of 0,15-0,3 milliseconds. Working with crypto markets only can let you have a wealth of 150 milliseconds because of the infrastructure specifications.

The speed of any centralized market, like NYSE, MOEX and LTSE does not exceed 1 millisecond. Any delay, which you make with sending an overlying bid, at first, seems to cost a penny. But in the end it may become a big loss.

The speed of the robot of less than 1 millisecond allows you not only to intercept bids of directed traders, but even slow arbitrage traders.

Sergey Vasilenko