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∞structural

The low-latency stack and how to build a trading system honestly: feeds, colocation, FPGA, and a backtest that refuses to flatter you.

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What's in this topic

5 pages, each linking down to the ideas inside it.

Messaging protocols01
FIX for order entry, binary protocols for speed, multicast for market data. The wire format is where latency is won or lost before your strategy even runs.
∞structural IX-FIX
The low-latency stack02
Kernel bypass, busy-polling, cache discipline, NUMA pinning: the engineering that shaves microseconds. Necessary for speed plays, overkill for most microstructure strategies.
∞structural
Colocation & FPGA03
Rent a rack next to the matching engine and put your logic in silicon. The latency budget (every nanosecond from wire to order) decides whether you win the race. In 2026, a capital-intensive arms race won by a few.
≈commoditised IX-LATENCYBUDGET
Building a trading system04
Feed handler, book builder, strategy, order manager, risk gate. The components are the same whether you run from a laptop or a colo rack; only the latency budget changes.
∞structural
Backtesting & simulation05
Toggle look-ahead, survivorship and optimistic fills and watch a fake edge appear. The hardest part of research is not finding an edge. It is not lying to yourself about one.
∞structural IX-BACKTEST

Where this fits

↔ Across · composes with High-frequency data ↔ Across · composes with The business of HFT ↔ Across · composes with Risk management → Apply · makes money in Going independent in 2026 → Apply · makes money in Crypto market making ⤓ Build / Buy · tool needed Datasets & tools