Latency is dead time in which the market can move against you. On the Gold path it is monitored as an implicit infrastructure cost.
Gold path — Module: Professional execution. Part of gold-path.
Who this is for
- Anyone running strategies sensitive to timing.
- Anyone who notices a gap between click price and fill price.
- Anyone using APIs, bridges, or multi-venue routing.
Prerequisites — Complete silver-path first (min.: market-order, slippage, active-management, position-sizing). Foundation: bronze-path.
In plain terms — Between your click and the fill, precious milliseconds pass. If the market runs, that delay becomes a concrete cost.
Practical optimisation
Measure end-to-end latency: platform, network, broker, exchange. Separate technical latency from human decision latency. Remove unnecessary hops and validate stability during high-volatility periods. Set execution fallbacks when latency exceeds a critical threshold. Link latency data to slippage and fill-ratio metrics.
Example — On a macro event average latency rises from 60 ms to 240 ms. Average slippage doubles and the strategy loses edge. With alternative routing and limit-first rules the degradation shrinks.
Card
- Goal: reduce operational delay in sensitive phases.
- Key inputs: order timestamp, ack, execution.
- Warning sign: latency spikes during news.
- Typical mistake: measuring only the local connection.
- Practical action: periodic audit of the order path.