> The co-located servers sync their transactions so HFT firms won’t have enough time to identify an order on one exchange and then race to another to trade against it.
That sort of sounds like DDOS to me. They patented a DDOS botnet.
I assume the traders can't place orders with time of execution (to be executed at the specified time, kept secret until then).
If the market accepted the time of execution from traders and kept the trades secret until they were executed, then there would be no need for these patents.
There may be some exchanges that accept some sort of specialized order type that allows for time of execution as a constraint. That said, this issue is about synchronizing between exchanges and there certainly aren't any exchanges that collaborate to do that.
That sort of sounds like DDOS to me. They patented a DDOS botnet.