UBS turns to laser beams and 5G to speed up trading

In its most recent attempt to cut down on time when trading stocks, UBS, the largest Swiss bank, has turned to laser beams and 5G technology, Business Insider reports. According to UBS, the new technology will enable faster sending of orders. New Jersey has been chosen for the implementation due to the fact that most US equity trading takes place there; the bank is working with NYSE, Nasdaq, and Cboe to implement the new technology.

While the bank is already using 5G to receive market data, it may be affected by detrimental weather conditions interfering with data reception. Currently, whenever it is raining in New Jersey, numerous institutions switch from wireless to more reliable dark fibre. Laser beams, however, could solve this problem due to their resilience to bad weather.

Like with any full implementation of new technology, UBS needs to confirm the investment will pay off. Thus, it will send only a small number of orders via the new infrastructure, monitoring the results.