Frank Tsonis

Out of Sync: Slowing down the rate of High Frequency Trading

Out of Sync is an interdisciplinary art project that examines how High Frequency Trading (HFT) has accelerated trading on financial markets. This thesis makes visible how the speed increases inherent within HFT are out of sync with the pace of human perception. The body of work consists of three projects that each discuss a specific topic within HFT including the data mining techniques used by HFT algorithms, the history of HFT, and the loss of space brought about by electronic trading. I use the method of deceleration to illustrate these differences in speed and represent HFT algorithms using text, video game design and sound synthesis. Finally, I analyze HFT through the theories of Paul Virilio and I demonstrate how the speed at which HFT occurs contributes to the
loss of physical space as well as the potential for global accidents.

 2013