WorldWide Drilling Resource

39 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® NOVEMBER 2016 How Do You Make a Stock Market Superhighway? Complied by Editorial Staff of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Who cares about a few extra m - seconds? H gh-frequency traders n the stock market, that s who. H gh-frequency traders are those who use a gor thms to make b ons buy ng and se ng stocks a t ny fract on of a second faster than other traders. One group even she ed out an est mated $300 m on to ay a f ber-opt c cab e to transfer trades n the stra ghtest, fastest route poss b e between markets n Ch cago and New York. The endeavor nvo ved dr ng through mounta ns and be ow urban areas across severa states. In the summer of 2009, approx - mate y 2000 workers were d gg ng and bor ng. Ear y work on the project fe t excruc at ng y s ow for h gh-frequency traders back ng the venture. Contractors accustomed to dr ng n contro ed env ronments, ke open f e ds or ra - road r ght-of-ways, had to adapt to dr ng through rough terra n nc ud ng mounta n sch st, va ey sha e, earthy mud, and hard gran te. Leav ng Ch cago, the crews z pped across Ind ana and Oh o. On a good day, they cou d ay two to three m es of ne. However, once they ar r ved n wes t ern Pennsy van a, they h t hard mestone ca ed “b ue rock” and the pace s owed, somet mes to just a few hundred feet per day. Workers n the A egheny Mounta ns care- fu y p aced b ast charges to remove enough rock to make edges wh ch wou d support dr ng r gs needed to bore through preh stor c rock. After workers had been dr ng for a year, the proj- ect was st , amaz ng y, top secret. To max m ze the ne s shock va ue and m n m ze the chance of someone rep cat ng what these h gh-frequency traders were do ng, they wa ted unt just three months before the ne was due to be comp eted before try ng to se space on t. As soon as f na connect ons weremade on the new 825-m e cab e, traders ned up for a spot on ts nes. W th the t me neces- sary to send a s gna between New York and Ch cago reduced from 17 m seconds to 13 m seconds, stock market traders were w ng to pay $14 m on a year, p us a substant a up-front payment, to access a ne on the new stock market superh ghway. Andy M s, a journa st for NPR joked, “These days, the markets are run by super computers who trade tens of thousands of stocks n mere m seconds, a w thout the a d of any s ugg sh human be ngs.” As t turns out, 205 crews of e ght men each, a ong w th assorted adv sors and n- spectors, got up ear y each day to f gure out how to b ast a ho e through a g ven moun- ta n, tunne under a g ven r verbed, or d g a trench bes de a g ven country road to cre- ate the straghtest ne poss be so trades can successfu y trave at the speed of ght, four m seconds faster than before. Photo by Vlad Lazarenko. Photo courtesy of Spread Networks. !132 +.#!3%$ !-$ 2/!1%2 /1.5)$%$ &.1 %7)23)-' %04)/,%-3 -)$ 1)++ 823%,2 -# % !1% $%$)#!3%$ 3. 3(% 6!3%1 6%++ )-$42318 (%23-43 5% -)$ 666 %-)$$1)++ #., (.-% !7 %%$ %/!)12 .3!18 3!"+%2 9 4$ /4,/2 !*.1 #.,/.-%-32 : 1.3!18 3!"+%2 -.6 /1.$4#%$ 6)3( +!1'% 1)-' '%!1 !-$ /)-).-