Sorry am I in a fucking fever dream? The location of your office doesn't matter? Bro, we are at the point where HFTs are taking into account cable diameter lengths inside the datacenter. You realize, and I know this is crazy, but when data moves from place to place, it is bound by the laws of physics and so, there is actually a measurable, and for HFTs, HUGE difference between being in Chicago versus NYC. You said yourself, the datacenters are in NJ. Okay, NYC is closer to NJ than Chicago, and that's where the exchanges are. Not every hedge fund is a fucking HFT or relies on latency to create arbitrage, hence why you have some in other places, but guess what, there are almost 0 HFTs in California. Hmmm...