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The tiny delay between sending an order and it reaching the market. In fast trading, even milliseconds count.
Why It Matters
Latency is lag — the time an instruction takes to travel from a trader's computer to the exchange and back. For long-term investors it's irrelevant. For high-frequency firms it's everything, which is why they pay to place servers in the same building as the exchange ('colocation') to cut latency to microseconds. Lower latency means reaching a price before it moves; higher latency raises the odds of slippage.
Key Points
- The delay between sending an order and it hitting the market
- Irrelevant for long-term investors, critical for HFT
- Higher latency raises the risk of slippage
Related Terms
Common Questions
The tiny delay between sending an order and it reaching the market. In fast trading, even milliseconds count. Latency is lag — the time an instruction takes to travel from a trader's computer to the exchange and back. For long-term investors it's irrelevant.
Latency is lag — the time an instruction takes to travel from a trader's computer to the exchange and back. For long-term investors it's irrelevant. For high-frequency firms it's everything, which is why they pay to place servers in the same building as the exchange ('colocation') to cut latency to microseconds. Lower latency means reaching a price before it moves; higher latency raises the odds of slippage.
The delay between sending an order and it hitting the market
Irrelevant for long-term investors, critical for HFT
Higher latency raises the risk of slippage