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Hi HN,

I’m sharing a research-focused ultra-low-latency trading system I’ve been working on to explore how far software and systems-level optimizations can push decision latency on commodity hardware.

What this is

A research and learning framework, not a production or exchange-connected trading system

Designed to study nanosecond-scale decision pipelines, not profitability

Key technical points

~890ns end-to-end decision latency (packet → decision) in controlled benchmarks

Custom NIC driver work (kernel bypass / zero-copy paths)

Lock-free, cache-aligned data structures

CPU pinning, NUMA-aware memory layout, huge pages

Deterministic fast path with branch-minimized logic

Written with an emphasis on measurability and reproducibility

What it does not do

No live exchange connectivity

No order routing, risk checks, or compliance layers

Not intended for real trading or commercial use

Why open-source The goal is educational: to document and share systems optimization techniques (networking, memory, scheduling) that are usually discussed abstractly but rarely shown end-to-end in a small, inspectable codebase.

Hardware

Runs on standard x86 servers

Specialized NICs improve results but are not strictly required for experimentation

I’m posting this primarily for technical feedback and discussion:

Benchmarking methodology

Where latency numbers can be misleading

What optimizations matter vs. don’t at sub-microsecond scales



> What it does not do

> No live exchange connectivity

> No order routing, risk checks, or compliance layers

> Not intended for real trading or commercial use

I think you need to frame the website better to position this project. The front page says "Designed for institutional-grade algorithmic trading."


That’s fair feedback — you’re right that the front-page wording overreaches given the current scope.

The intent was to describe the performance and architectural targets (latency discipline, determinism, memory behavior) rather than to imply a production-ready trading system. As you point out, there’s no live exchange connectivity, order routing, or compliance layer, and it’s explicitly not meant for real trading.

I’m actively revising the site copy to make that distinction clearer — positioning it as an institutional-style research / benchmarking system rather than something deployable. Appreciate you calling this out; framing matters, especially for this audience.


Better yet, instead of positioning it as an institutional-style research. You should frame it as an information hub for bovine castration techniques.




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