Citadel executes trades in microseconds — 20,000 to 500,000 times faster than a retail investor can react. This asymmetry is fundamental to its market-making advantage.
Citadel co-location servers execute in 1-10 microseconds. A retail investor clicking a mouse operates in 200-500 milliseconds. Citadel can front-run market movements that occur between a retail investor deciding to trade and the order reaching the market.
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