If football is a game of inches, then trading is game of ultra-high precision timing measured in nano- and microseconds.
Exchange operator Nasdaq has announced it has launched Perseus Telecom’s trade time ultra-precise time stamp offering, dubbed “High Precision Time,” at its U.S. data center in Carteret, N.J.
The need for ultra-precise timing helps traders determine not only who was first to execute and order, but also the exchanges and regulators create an accurate time sequence of trading in the event of a market glitch or malfunction.
High Precision Time by Perseus Telecom provides National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certified time service options to allow Nasdaq clients to sync their system clocks as either a primary or backup time service and their time-stamping devices to a highly accurate interval that is calibrated and monitored by NIST.
Time stamping ensures that all timekeeping devices are completely accurate and in line with all of a users’ trading systems in case of power outages or date surges (for instance, the timing on one device may be as many as a couple seconds slow than another which will completely throw all of the data off)
Clients can connect to Perseus’ Precision Time service via a simple inter-cabinet cross connect which can be ordered via Nasdaq’s colocation and connectivity console. Also, users have an array of choices of protocols such as NTP, PTP and PPS.
The High Precision Time service offers a granularity synchronization of 25 microseconds for NTP or 1 microsecond for PTP. The Ultra High Precision Time Synchronization PPS + NTP/PTP service is the most accurate level of time service offered.
