Research and analysis

Computer trading: impact of special relativity on securities regulation

Report exploring what light speed trading could mean for our financial markets.

• From: Government Office for Science
• Published: 8 September 2011

Documents

Impact of special relativity on securities regulation (DR15)

Ref: BIS/11/1242

PDF, 289 KB, 15 pages

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Details

Modern physics has shown us that matter moving at high speed behaves differently from matter moving at low speed. This report explores whether our financial markets will behave differently as they approach trading at the speed of light. It considers implications for:

• consumer protection
• regulation
• fairness
• resource allocation
• economic efficiency
• economic stability

This review was commissioned as part of the Foresight project on the future of computer trading.

Published 8 September 2011