Optimistic Concurrency Control

Optimistic Concurrency Control is a method for managing concurrent state access that assumes conflicts between transactions are rare. Instead of locking resources to prevent simultaneous access, the system allows all transactions to proceed and only checks for conflicts at the final stage of commitment.

If a conflict is detected ⎊ meaning the data was modified by another transaction during the execution ⎊ the protocol aborts the transaction and forces a retry. This approach is highly efficient for protocols with low contention, as it avoids the overhead of managing complex locks.

In financial applications, this allows for faster execution of orders during normal market conditions. However, it requires robust mechanisms to handle retries and ensure that the final state remains consistent even under high load.