The Case for Rust in High-Frequency Trading

The high-frequency trading landscape is evolving. C++ has dominated for decades, but Rust is emerging as a compelling alternative. Here's why.

The Performance Imperative

HFT demands:

- Sub-microsecond latencies for order execution

- Millions of operations per second for market data processing

- Deterministic performance under all conditions

- Zero memory overhead in critical paths

Rust delivers on all fronts.

Memory Safety Without Garbage Collection

Traditional languages force a choice:

| Language | Safety | Performance | GC Pauses |

|----------|--------|-------------|-----------|

| Java | ✅ | ⚠️ | ❌ |

| C++ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ |

| Rust | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

Rust's ownership model eliminates:

- Use-after-free bugs

- Double-free errors

- Data races

- Null pointer dereferences

All caught at compile time.

Real-World Performance

Benchmark: Order book processing (10,000 updates)

`

C++ (optimized): 142μs

Rust: 138μs

Java (no GC): 245μs

`

Rust matches C++ performance while providing stronger guarantees.

Concurrency Without Fear

`rust

use crossbeam::channel::{bounded, Sender, Receiver};

// Lock-free MPSC channel for market data

let (tx, rx): (Sender, Receiver) = bounded(1024);

// Multiple producers, single consumer

thread::spawn(move || {

for update in rx {

process_update(update);

}

});

`

The compiler guarantees thread safety.

Production Adoptions

Major firms are adopting Rust:

- Cloudflare: Edge computing infrastructure

- AWS: Firecracker VMM, Bottlerocket OS

- Microsoft: Azure IoT Edge

- Discord: Low-latency messaging

HFT firms are following suit.

Migration Strategy

You don't need to rewrite everything:

1. FFI Integration: Call Rust from C++

2. Incremental Adoption: Start with new components

3. Hot Path Optimization: Replace critical sections first

The Ecosystem

Rust's HFT ecosystem is growing:

- tokio: Async runtime with io_uring support

- crossbeam: Lock-free data structures

- quinn: QUIC implementation

- dpdk-rs: DPDK bindings

Conclusion

Rust offers a unique combination:

- C++-level performance

- Memory safety guarantees

- Modern tooling and ergonomics

- Growing ecosystem

For new HFT projects, Rust should be your first choice.

Resources

- Rust Performance Book

- Tokio Tutorial

- Lock-free Programming

Ready to build the next generation of trading systems?