A delicate part of a machine suggests intricacy and quality of workmanship. But the innate delicateness also presents the drawback of fragility, which must be mitigated for the part to be useful. That is the tightrope of sorts that technologists at trading-technology firms walk. Optimizing the countless parts that perform the granular work that helps clients trade faster and more reliably, while also ensuring those parts can withstand the storms of churning, high-volume markets. Fragility of hardware, software and networks can be found in many places: the interconnections of complex systems; the web of intricate ‘handshakes’ and nuanced protocols; myriad formats; and the unpredictability of glitches and failures. Meanwhile, resilience manifests itself in battle-tested underlying protocols such as FIX; systems of checks, balances, monitoring and fallbacks; and preventative early communication.
Terry Flanagan
