Quincy: Latency Reductions ‘Nearing Perfection’ on Aurora-NJ Data Network

Quincy is now distributing market data between CME’s Aurora datacenter and Nasdaq’s datacenter in Carteret, NJ with one-way latency of 3.982 milliseconds, measured from rack to rack inside the datacenters (compared to 4.012 ms in July 2015). The vendor has also lowered the latency on its route between Aurora and Equinix’s NY2 datacenter in Secaucus, NJ from 4.052 ms to 4.015 ms, and has lowered latency between Aurora and NYSE’s datacenter campuses in Mahwah, NJ from 4.039 ms to 3.986 ms.

Quincy’s customers are using its data to trade CME futures with similar exchanges that host their matching engines in the Secaucus campus, including BATS (including the former Direct Edge markets), fixed income platform Broketec, and various foreign exchange platforms and dark pools. Meanwhile, the route between Aurora and Mahwah is typically used to trade NYSE equities, while the route between Aurora and Carteret is used to trade Nasdaq equities and eSpeed US treasuries.

The latency reductions are a result of ongoing improvements made by Quincy’s sister company, microwave network provider McKay Brothers, says Jim Considine, who serves as director of business development and strategy for both companies.

The changes include shortening of overall path lengths, updated equipment on McKay’s microwave network, as well as improvements to Quincy’s infrastructure inside the co-location facilities, such as software updates and the installation of new FPGA processors. “The reality is, we’re improving all the time. Since we last made a statement about our latencies, we have been engaged in constant efforts to improve,” Considine says.

However, Quincy is nearing the physical limit of the speed of market data on its network, Considine says. “For Aurora to NJ, we view perfect at about 3.975 ms, so we are about 50 microseconds from perfect now and we will continue to make improvements. It remains by far the fastest data service, but another benefit is that we support a large breadth of exchanges and co-los, and we are constantly adding new venues, so really we will never be done making improvements,” he adds.

Quincy currently carries data from 11 exchanges in the US and Europe, and is rolling out connectivity to more, and has a total of 14 points of presence at trading hubs in Illinois, New Jersey, the UK and Frankfurt.

In addition to latency-sensitive and high-frequency trading firms, Considine says the vendor is now seeing interest from traditional trading firms of all sizes to use microwave data in their trading algorithms and electronic execution engines. “Fast market data is interesting to anyone co-located at any of the exchanges,” he says.