For all of the angst over high-frequency trading (HFT news), it's clear that it is not going away. If the practice is somehow impeded in the United States, more trading may simply migrate overseas. We've noted that beyond the U.S. and Europe, the current hotspots, other markets are retooling their systems to be more high-frequency trading friendly.

Asia looms as a hot spot. The Singapore Exchange, for example, has announced its so-called Reach initiative, which will launch what the firm bills as the world's fastest trading system by the first quarter of next year. The $250 million investment in the new system will allow the exchange to execute trades in 90 microseconds compared with three to five milliseconds now.

But Asian countries are not the only ones with their eyes on the trend. The Colombian Stock Exchange has announced it has hired technology firm Rapid Addition to help build a high-frequency infrastructure in the country. According to Securities Technology Monitor, the exchange vows total commitment to building a modern exchange that can handle such volumes.

Two other countries have indicated similar ambitions in this arena, Brazil and Mexico. There are risks here, highlighted by the Philippine Stock Exchange move to roll out a new trading system, which quickly malfunctioned, corrupting all kinds of data.

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