The idea doesn't help the hft'ers. It takes an order, secretly transmits it to computers each as near to the major markets as possible, with instructions so that the computers submit the trade offer at precisely the same time.
The hft'ers can't make money since they can't outrun trade offers that are synchronous across all markets.
As someone with zero domain knowledge, why aren't the exchanges already doing precision timed order processing? That just seems like it's should be a standard feature across the board. The broker sends buy/sell orders with planned execution times to all the required exchanges and the exchanges sit on the orders until the designated time.
Exchanges do time ordered processing on their own exchange (with different levels of precision). I don't know of any exchanges that offer execution time as a constraint, but new order types can be created if they were deemed valuable (it takes SEC approval).
That said, it wouldn't alleviate the issue necessarily. If firms detect problems in the clock sync between exchanges you are right back to the same problem, and now you've added a complex bit of tech that requires a bunch of competitors to agree on.
This seems, to me at least, to be one of those problems that it is better to let the problem surface than to try to alleviate with an abstraction layer that is leaky and error prone.
But this technology is patent is just implementing the exact same thing at one layer removed from the exchange. You still have to time the orders and you still have to keep the timed orders confidential. To me, using a 3rd party to do this instead of having it as part of the base system is... silly I guess.
What? It generally only costs a few thousand dollars per month to colocate servers next to exchanges.
Arguably, it is more fair now than it ever was in legacy "open outcry" markets where the size of the floor was fixed and if you didn't get a spot on it you weren't able to compete.
Disclaimer: I've worked in HFT 9ish years (10 soon)
The hft'ers can't make money since they can't outrun trade offers that are synchronous across all markets.