If you read "Flash Boys" by Michael Lewis, he describes the creation of the IEX, which attempts to do exactly this. RBC created a tool to try and synchronize order flow, which worked for a time. Part of the solution that IEX uses is to put large spools of fiber-optic line in between the servers to delay order flow long enough to negate the HFT systems.
Also if you read "Flash Boys" you will realize that the guys that started IEX previously worked for brokers whose central job is making sure orders get executed well and they were terrible at it. They literally did not understand basic market fundamentals that they were getting paid millions of dollars to understand. I'm not convinced I want these same guys routing my orders.
As anyone with a lick of understanding in technology has to ask, why the hell do they need big spools of fiber to negate HFT systems? Can't they implement low latency time stamping much cheaper? I suppose that a box full of computer chips won't impress big named "journalists" nearly as much as a spool of fiber though...
>As anyone with a lick of understanding in technology has to ask, why the hell do they need big spools of fiber to negate HFT systems? Can't they implement low latency time stamping much cheaper?
It's actually a quite elegant solution, and most likely cheapest: it gives you very precise, reliable, repeatable, order-preserving delay for one-time installation cost and you don't have to pay to developers, wait for software to be written and debugged and don't have to buy additional hardware!
