There is a Secret $300 Million Cable Between New York and Chicago
They say that time is money and nowhere is this more true than in the stock market. But what does this have to do with a secret cable you may ask?
Well, let's take it from the beginning. The internet today functions with the speed of 1 foot (or 30 cm) per nanosecond meaning it is really really fast but not instantaneous.
In the United States, the market for futures exists mainly in Chicago. A future is like a stock: it is a promise that you may get a certain stock in the future for a set price.
However, most stocks sell in New York. This means that when a price changes in New York it takes a few milliseconds for that information to travel to Chicago, especially since the cable connecting Chicago to New York was not a direct route.
That's where Dan Spivey of Spread Networks saw an opportunity to make money off of price changes by connecting a direct cable from Chicago to New York that would be faster than the already existing one.
This cost him a whopping $300 million dollars and was done in secret as not to alert his competitors. Find out more above this super expensive cable in this video.