Building Trading Technology That Truly Matters: Prioritise Real User Needs Over Milliseconds
Abhinav Jain’s letter to his trading-technology team questions the industry’s fixation on raw execution latency. He argues that ultra-low latency claims (e.g., sub-20ms or sub-50ms executions) primarily benefit HFT, market makers and arbitrageurs, not the vast majority of retail traders whose decision times are measured in seconds. Jain urges teams to re-evaluate priorities: focus less on micro-optimising latency and more on features that materially affect traders’ outcomes — reliability, UX, risk controls, clearer instrumentation, observability, and product-market fit. The piece critiques marketing-driven engineering, calling for pragmatic trade-offs that serve real user workflows rather than vanity performance numbers. Key themes: latency vs. real-world impact, product focus, user-centred engineering, reliability, and prioritisation of tangible trading features over headline speed metrics.
Neutral
The article is an opinion piece urging engineering and product teams to prioritise practical trader needs over headline latency figures. It does not announce new protocols, token launches, regulations, or market-moving events. Therefore the direct market impact is likely neutral: it could shift engineering and product prioritisation over time but won’t immediately affect prices or liquidity. Short-term: minimal market reaction because no asset-specific news or measurable operational changes were announced. Traders may take marginally less interest in latency-driven product marketing. Long-term: if the industry broadly adopts these priorities, exchanges and brokerages might deliver more reliable platforms and better risk controls, which could lower execution risk and indirectly support market confidence — a modestly positive structural effect for market stability. Comparable past patterns: industry commentary on best practices (e.g., post-trading outages or API changes) typically influences vendor roadmaps and customer expectations without triggering immediate price moves.