How Real is Real Time?

L

lightfoot500

I want to know if anyone know how much "real time" goes by on the real time systems from when it is reported on the "floor" to when it gets to my computer or yours, assuming 1.) regular 56kphone modem or 2.) high speed dsl or cable modem. ? Are some internet sites offering real time that is faster that others? I know that real time is supposed to be as current as possible but not everything is as it seems, right??
live lightly
 
good question..the only thing I can say is that my major indices ticker changes about 10-20seconds before the one on cnbc does

but who knows?
 
If you post an inside bid or offer you can get an idea of an upper boundary for your quote delay (if you can identify your bid/offer on your datafeed).
 
all data is late - and a lot later than most realise - for reasons i wont go into on here - but since most are using the late data - in a wacky sort of way - it is a levelish playing field

 
real time gets delay sometime also. like my mbtrading software sometime gets like 15 sec delay on the level 2. that is why to have a backup. in my case moneynet.com
 
If you're talking NASDAQ, I think it's about as real as it gets cause everything is electronic. And you have the ECN's in there competing and always trying to shave milliseconds. With a good connection, you're probably about 1/10th to 2/10th of a second away from when the trade occurred (time to get excute + time for the ECN to process it + time for the ECN to send it to your data provider + time for your provider to send it to you + time for your PC to display it to you).

If you're talking NYSE, then it's a different story. The specialist can be talking to the people in the crowd, perhaps "working" a big order. The broker doing the order knows he's going to get it and the price, but by the time the specialist gets everything going, it may be 20-40 seconds before he puts it on the tape. I know this because I've had trades where I get the report 20-40 seconds before I see it on the tape and this isn't due to a slow connection.

For anything traded in a "pit", you'll also be behind by a number of seconds. Though, not sure what the number is.
 
Originally posted by uptik2000
good question..the only thing I can say is that my major indices ticker changes about 10-20seconds before the one on cnbc does

but who knows?
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Now that is some serious slippage (on the good side). What data vender do you use? I've had both QQL and Tradestation plus Datek for back-up. QQL usually about 3-4 seconds ahead of CNBC, Tradestation maybe a hair (blond not brunette) faster than QQL, Datek 1 second at the most. Datek used to lag as much as 10- 15 seconds behind but lately they've been johnny-on-the-spot. And reliable. Go figure.
 
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