
HFT in the Banana Land - argaldo
https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/hft-in-the-banana-land/
======
atemerev
"inhabitants of the Western world need to realize that the tallest structures
they can see in the landscape are the face of what may be a new kind of God:
finance."

Oh come on, so much drama for a slick lean tower in sparsely populated land,
barely visible to anyone but local fishermen.

Compare it to, say, this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar)

This is a very prominent military installation that spoiled shortwave
communications for years, and nobody dared to say a word against it.

If the choice is between Ares and Hermes, I am choosing Hermes.

(Disclaimer: I am a trading software engineer).

~~~
PrivatUser
The Problem is that some of these people live there becausw they like the view
of the nature. Uninterupted by some modern skyscrapers. I prefer to live in a
more rural area. I accept wind turbines, because they are a nesessery if you
don't won't depend on coal and nuclear energy. Now these people get some
building that doesn't benefit them and isn't strictly nesessery. With the Duga
Radar you could argue it's some country defenses mechanisms, which the
microwave link clearly isn't.

~~~
mc32
You could also argue that losing out economically has significant impact on a
nation and its people. While national financial institutions are rethinking
the focus on finance as a focus of the economy, it's not by happenstance
London, New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo, HK, etc. pursued being financial hubs.

They were keystones in their respective economies and thus just as integral to
national physical defense.

~~~
lentil_soup
well this is a private company, no? Not really of much impact to a whole
nation

~~~
atemerev
Nation is the sum of private individuals and companies.

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lordnacho
I wonder if there's a business in offering to fly a swarm of large drones in
the Fresnel zone of the customer's choice.

~~~
atemerev
Unless you also have a way of recharging them...

~~~
RaSoJo
Maybe Aerial Re-charging via other drones?

[EDIT] Or there are the Facebook planes:
[http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/30/9074925/facebook-aquila-
so...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/30/9074925/facebook-aquila-solar-
internet-plane)

~~~
atemerev
They have to maintain steady position (impossible for planes).

Also, the weather over the Channel can be quite unforgiving.

Drones are not the end of the line, though. A quick Google search for "hft
neutrino" shows how creative these guys could be in their insatiable quests
for shaving off microseconds.

~~~
sniperinmahwah
The neutrino thing was a failed experience (false data), so no HFT here.

~~~
atemerev
Not this one. The idea of using neutrinos to beam through the Earth directly,
from London to NYC.

~~~
sniperinmahwah
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-
light_neutrino_ano...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-
light_neutrino_anomaly)

~~~
evanpw
Even if they only move at the speed of light, they can travel in a straight
line directly through the earth instead of along the curved surface, saving
time. The problem is that if neutrinos can pass through the entire earth
unimpeded, most of them will pass through your detector on the other side too.

------
didsomeonesay

      'The mast will be erected in the western part of the Richborough Power Station, a place referred to as “The Banana Land” (I suppose the name comes from the pseudo-tropical climate created by the station?).'
    

And up until that point in the article I was thinking we were talking about
the Blue Banana [1]. Because the Frankfurt-to-London route is in the middle of
it.

But apparently it is only referring to that former power plant location.

Better theory yet: look at the shape of land surrounded by train tracks and
River Stour on Google maps [2].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Banana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Banana)

[2] [https://goo.gl/maps/Sh8h9v1SNYT2](https://goo.gl/maps/Sh8h9v1SNYT2)

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lwhi
How long before activists start flying large kites directly in front of these
structures?

~~~
Tsagadai
Or the equivalent to a camera killer green laser. Masers have been around for
longer than lasers so it is entirely possible.

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supahfly_remix
Out of curiosity, how long does regeneration of microwave signals take?

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pythondz
Ahem... What will happen if we take down a tower ? Or cause interference to
the straight line between uk and germany ?

If anyone has any idea (a fault-tolerant design maybe) or impacts on the
financial markets ?

~~~
kasey_junk
You'd hardly notice. The routes also exist via physical links . Prices on the
exchanges may get worse for a while...

~~~
pythondz
> Prices on the exchanges may get worse for a while...

What time scale are we talking about? (ns, μs, ms or even several minutes ?)

~~~
kasey_junk
The prices will be worse until the higher speed link problem is resolved. That
speed advantage allows the HFT firms to have less risk, that less risk gets
translated into lower spreads (ie better prices) on the exchange.

Conversely, the slower links cause the firms to take on more risk, for which
they need to make more money, that happens in the form of increased spreads.

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zump
Why haven't uWave firms resorted to anonymous EMP?

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zongitsrinzler
brackets overload

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dovdov
UK - Europe

This tells a lot. :)

~~~
Zr40
"Europe" here refers to the continent, which the lands of the UK clearly are
not a part of. It does not refer to the European Union.

~~~
vog
The point is that only UK citizens simplify that to "Europe" instead of saying
"Continental Europe". Also, it is strange that they only exclude themselves,
not Scandinavia or Iceland.

This is really a political issue. Here in Germany nobody would ever think of
excluding UK when talking about "Europe". The same goes for France, Belgium,
and so on. And nobody would ever have to explicitly say "European Union" just
to make clear that they also mean UK. Of course UK is part of Europe! We have
deep historical, cultural and political connections, let alone the massive
economic interrelations - as depicted in the article.

Their strange view is a pity, and we can only hope that the UK politicians
will change their view - either by understanding, or by being replaced with
more sane politicians in the next elections.

~~~
bb101
I think many people in the UK admire the Swiss and Norwegian models of
participating in the "European project". The country retains sovereignty and
only implements laws that suit its citizens.

I have to say I am surprised by your comment, as it assumes that politicians
are responsible for their country's perspective on Europe? Surely it is the
other way round, and the politicians have an obligation to represent their
citizens' viewpoints fairly and transparently - regardless of whether it is
seen as palatable by the bureaucrats. It does seem that some EU politicians
(read: Merkel) are only discovering this right now.

~~~
throwaway7767
> I think many people in the UK admire the Swiss and Norwegian models of
> participating in the "European project". The country retains sovereignty and
> only implements laws that suit its citizens.

Since they participate in the EEA, they don't really have a choice to say no
to the EEA legislation. They are required to implement similar legislation
within a certain time period, otherwise the EEA will sue the government for
not fulfilling their contract. About the only way to really say "no" to
something is to rescind their EEA membership.

Case in point: data retention was forced through in Iceland through the EEA
agreement. This unpopular legislation went through because "it's an EEA
requirement, you don't want to leave the single market do you?". After it was
implemented, the directive was struck down by the EU court, so it's no longer
required for EEA area countries to implement. But Iceland is still stuck with
the data retention laws, and they're unlikely to go anywhere as revoking laws
is much, much harder than passing them.

~~~
vog
_> Case in point: data retention was forced through in Iceland through the EEA
agreement_

That's only half of the story.

Many other European countries were in the same situation as Iceland, but
didn't hurry to implement their data retention. Instead they decided to wait
for the EU court ruling.

Also, that lawsuit came to no surprise. I bet the activists would have loved
to start the lawsuit even earlier, but you can't start a lawsuit against
something that doesn't exist yet.

