TOKYO — Currency traders in the Japanese capital have been operating at a disadvantage for years now, with their automated systems receiving crucial information 0.1 or 0.2 of a second after the very same data is available in New York.
That blink of the eye is enough time to fatten trading costs and even wipe out trading profits, especially if a transaction is made with a bank that has up to the nanosecond information on yen rates and other key foreign exchange pricing data.