&gt;But what is the social benefit of the stock markets being synced to the state of the economy at the micro-second &#x2F; nano-second time scale ?<p>It&#x27;s cheaper than people doing it, and the lower the latency, the faster a trader can move his position to match changes in the market.<p>What is the social benefit of Twitter loading in 100ms instead of 150ms? Why is latency important for peoples&#x27; stupid mobile apps, but not important for financial transactions?<p>&gt;Nothing in the real economy changes that fast.<p>Sure, but you don&#x27;t want to have to wait for an earnings report to sell your shares when you want to buy a house or something. You want people to always be trading your stock so it&#x27;s easy to buy and sell. Similarly, when a big pension fund buys or sells a lot of your stock at once you want &quot;people&quot; trading to reduce volatility.