Retained Technical Strategy for Electronic Trading

We provide the architectural guardrails and strategic oversight required to protect capital and maximize P&L.

Eliminate Decision Latency. We operate as an independent architectural authority—bridging the gap between quantitative vision and engineering reality.

Schedule Strategy Session

30 min · Ariel Silahian

Book a Strategic Call

What we do?

Executive Technical Sovereignty

We partner with established electronic trading organizations to align trading infrastructure with commercial objectives.

We operate as a retained governance function, working alongside your existing engineering teams. This model ensures consistent, high-level architectural direction and strategic continuity, focusing on long-term stability rather than temporary operational capacity.

We have been featured!

NASDAQ

Yahoo Finance

How we help

Strategic Architecture

Translating commercial objectives into a rigorous technology roadmap. We ensure every technical initiative aligns directly with P&L goals.

Eliminate the ‘Gap Risk’ between business goals and engineering reality.

Execution Quality & Microstructure

Leveraging proprietary forensic capabilities to diagnose invisible latency and slippage, translating network behavior into actionable intelligence.

Stop bleeding Alpha to invisible slippage and latency gray zones.

Resilience & Risk Strategy

Establishing ‘Zero-Failover’ protocols. We design the guardrails that allow your teams to deploy faster while maintaining institutional safety.

Deploy faster with the certainty that the platform will not break.

Platform & Vendor Strategy

Arbitrating ‘Build vs. Buy’ decisions and vendor strategy. We act as the independent authority to break internal political deadlocks.

End the internal political deadlocks that stall critical infrastructure upgrades.

Ready to get started? Explore our service tiers to find your fit.

Explore Retainer Tiers →

How the Process Works

We guide executives through a proven four-stage process designed to deliver measurable outcomes and long-term strategic success.

Executive Strategy

Alignment on live decisions affecting P&L and Risk.

Architectural Review

Analysis of flows and blockers to prepare board-ready recommendations.

Decision Directives

Concise ‘Go/No-Go’ memos and roadmaps for immediate execution.

Strategic Intervention

Direct oversight during high-stakes launches or market events.

Pricing

Retained Technical Strategy: Choose the level of oversight required to secure your infrastructure.

Strategic Advisor

For teams, boards and leadership that need a “Second Opinion” on critical decisions to prevent costly mistakes.

$16K

monthly retainer

Strategy Directives ?
Vendor & Platform Arbitration ?
Capital Efficiency Review ?
Asynchronous Decision Support ?

Book a Call

About

After 20 years building high-frequency trading platforms for Tier-1 banks and hedge funds, I noticed a recurring pattern of failure. It was not that these firms lacked brilliant engineers. It was that they lacked Structural Governance—the architectural authority to align engineering decisions with commercial reality. I founded HFT Advisory to solve this specific gap.

Founder: VisualHFT — The industry standard for microstructure analytics. (1K+ GitHub Stars)

Author: “C++ High Performance for Financial Systems” (Packt)

Experience: 30+ years architecting across Buy Side and Sell Side (NY, Miami, London, HK)

Expertise

Industries

Market Makers
Capital Markets
Hedge Funds
Trading Desks
Liquidity Providers
Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Electronic Trading

Electronic Trading

High-Frequency Trading
Low-Latency Architecture
Market Microstructure
Execution Quality Analysis
Latency Arbitrage Defense

Market Coverage

Futures & Commodities
Digital Assets / Crypto
CFDs
FX
Equities
Fixed Income
Derivatives / Options

Strategic Advisory

Technology Strategy
Resilience Engineering
Capital Efficiency
Vendor Arbitration
Technical Roadmap

Optimizations

OMS
SOR
Zero-Failover Protocols
Slippage Mitigation
Infrastructure Modernization

Cutting Edge Tech

Advanced Analytics
Microstructure Forensics
Deterministic Replay
High-Performance Computing

Case Studies

Prop Trading

Proprietary Trading Firm Builds High-Frequency Trading System with our Guidance

Read Case Study →

Investment Bank

Global Investment Bank Modernizes Cross-Region Risk Management System

Read Case Study →

Risk Management

Renowned Investment Bank Enhances Risk Management System (RMS)

Read Case Study →

Asset Management

Global Asset Manager Strengthens Best Execution and Control Around OMS Platform

Read Case Study →

HFT Startup

HFT Startup Transforms Operations with Updated Systems

Read Case Study →

Hedge Fund

Hedge Fund Startup Sets Up High-Frequency Trading Electronic Platform

Read Case Study →

Schedule Your Strategy Discovery Call

Discuss how we can accelerate your decisions, reduce risks, and elevate trading performance

Frequently Asked Questions

No. We operate alongside your existing engineering teams as an independent governance function. Our role is to provide architectural direction and strategic oversight, not to replace headcount.

This service is designed for CTOs, Heads of Trading, and senior technical leaders at established electronic trading firms ($500M+ AUM) who face strategic infrastructure decisions and need independent, expert guidance.

We begin with an Executive Strategy session to understand your current blockers and P&L constraints. We then provide ongoing Architectural Review and Decision Directives on a regular cadence, with Strategic Intervention available for high-stakes events.

Success is measured by quantifiable outcomes: latency reduction, slippage improvement, deployment velocity, and risk incident reduction. We establish baseline metrics in the first 30 days and track improvement throughout the engagement.

Neither. This is a Retained Technical Governance function—closer to a strategic board advisor with deep technical execution capability. We do not manage teams or write code. We provide architectural authority and decision frameworks.

Yes. The Principal Architect tier includes Team Structure & Hiring Design. We help define roles, skill profiles, and organizational structure needed for your trading infrastructure goals.

Selectively. Our model is optimized for firms with existing trading operations. For early-stage ventures, we recommend starting with a Strategy Discovery Call to assess fit. We have helped HFT startups in their build phase when there is a clear path to institutional scale.

We provide the architectural direction and governance framework for building trading platforms. We do not build software ourselves. Our role is to ensure the platform your team builds is architecturally sound, low-latency by design, and aligned with your commercial objectives.

The cost varies significantly. A basic co-location setup starts at $200K–$500K annually. A full institutional-grade HFT infrastructure can exceed $2M–$5M in initial investment. Our Strategic Architecture service helps you design the right-sized solution and avoid costly over-engineering.

Latest Insights

In-depth analysis of HFT architecture, market microstructure, and trading infrastructure from the field.

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