Microsoft was scheduled to release its second quarter earnings after the bell on January 27, 2011. But at 2:50 PM, a full 70 minutes before the closing bell, a low latency, real-time fact aggregation and event data company called Selerity picked up the earnings report and distributed it to its clients. Volume that day picked up to 70 million shares by the last 15 minutes of trade, almost its daily average, as the stock went on a rollercoaster ride. During the session, Microsoft hit an intra-day peak of $29.46, a 2.4% gain, only to close barely up with a 0.3% gain, going on to dive 3.7% the next days. With 60% of the market dominated by high-frequency traders and automatic market makers, Selerity’s subscribers were in place to make a killing. With the Microsoft leak, Selerity, and its 27-year old CEO Ryan Terpstra barged into the data world and set it on a new path to a new future.
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