Legendary Hedge Fund Wants to Use Atomic Clocks to Beat High-Speed Traders
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Renaissance Technologies seeks a patent for anti-HFT invention
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High-speed traders seen as threat, even to biggest hedge funds
Patent application no. 14/451,356 has one goal: to outrun the speed demons of Wall Street.
The 16-page document was quietly published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in February. Replete with schematic drawings, the filing describes a novel way for “executing synchronized trades in multiple exchanges.” The invention consists of not only sophisticated algorithms and a host of computer servers, but atomic clocks — precisely calibrated to vibrations of irradiated cesium atoms — to sync orders to within a few billionths of a second.
And if it works as advertised, one of the most illustrious names in the hedge-fund business could gain exclusive U.S. rights to a weapon capable of thwarting even the most predatory of high-speed traders…
Legendary Hedge Fund Wants to Use Atomic Clocks to Beat High-Speed Traders
