What Is the Industry Standard for Time Synchronization on Financial Exchanges?

The industry standard for high-precision time synchronization is typically the Precision Time Protocol (PTP), or IEEE 1588. PTP allows network devices to synchronize their clocks to a master clock (often GPS-based atomic clocks) with sub-microsecond accuracy.

This level of precision is necessary to accurately record the order of events for regulatory compliance and to ensure the integrity of the price-time priority matching rule.