milliseconds. Goldman and other financial firms paid tens of millions of dollars to get access to fiber-optic cables that reduced the time information travels from Chicago to New Jersey by just four milliseconds (from 17 to 13). Financial firms have algorithms in place to read the information and trade based on it—all in a matter of milliseconds. After this crucial information is released, the market will move in less time than it takes you to blink your eye. So what is this crucial data that is so valuable to Goldman and numerous other financial institutions? The monthly unemployment rate.
