To: axial who wrote (30734 ) 7/24/2009 11:00:05 AM From: Frank A. Coluccio Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 46821 Hi Jim. The concerns voiced in your snippet have been on my mind since '87 when the original circuit breakers were implemented on DOT trading. Location.. location.. location.. seemed even back then to be a only a future requisite, i.e., when eventually the practice matured, which was an eventuality that few paid much attention to (while others derided it out of fear, because it was seen even back then as a threat to the outcry traders and other business as usual practitioners), on a scale that it's become obvious today, until only recently. Mitigating the need for locality (geographic presence) today is the availability of collocation space for housing robots (servers) closer to the "action", but even here we wonder about the scalability of such a solution vis a vis the orchestration requirements among and between multiple, global 'centers' of exchange. This last consideration concerning locality calls to mind the Rothschild Brothers strategically situating themselves personally for foreign exchange trading in Europe's main securities and currency exchanges (Amsterdam, Paris, London, Milan) during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. The original messages I posted on this topic several years ago discussed some of the dynamics that I'm alluding to here, but even then it was viewed as a "druther", or slight advantage on the grander scheme of things (important to only a small cult of traders), rather than an absolute requirement. This is an area that, I'm sure, will be addressed with "remedies" proposed by the powers that be. The only remaining question I'll have at that time is whether the remedies will be substantive (indeed, is anything substantive even possible, given that we're dealing with some pretty well-rooted laws of physics here), or will they in actuality exacerbate the situation by creating even higher barriers to entry due to the infrastructural demand$ they'll place on smaller actors. FAC ps - I'll be off the air for a couple of days... take care ------