That hedge funds use something called twisted light to get speed advantages on the network stack to the exchange. This essentially lets them change orders (via bit flipping) when they are already on the wire making their way to the matching engine.
Ask HN: What is the most technically interesting thing you've learned recently?
21–22 of 22 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the most technically interesting thing you've learned recently?
#22The fundamentals of Information Theory via (the late) David Mackay's lectures and textbook (homepage with links to the videos and free online textbook here: http://www.inference.org.uk/itprnn/ ).
Mackay's information theory text book is wonderful.