Quote from nononsense:
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Quote.com has had a very long history of instability. A quick search of ET's over the years will confirm this. I used to subscribe years ago before they had been taken over by Lycos. In the early years, they had a unique system going with an excellent API, years ahead for its time.
What brought what you called their 'instability' was an out of control 'orgy' by their programmers in trying to do all kind of ambitious but essentially useless things, i.e. setting up a fancy charting system. This is truly when their troubles started. Not so long after they got taken over by Lycos and kept on dragging their white elephant along.
I have posted several times on this example.
Morals:
(1) There is an absolute need for reliable quote distribution with a reliable API;
(2) Lots of complaints about players like Quote.com having taken on all kind of fancy toys but no longer delivering adequate basic quote services. It ain't that difficult to spot some other cases;
(3) Market forces will drive these lunatics out of business. This can take some time but it is inevitable;
(4) Let this be a lesson for all players in alike fields. Don't let programmers screw you. They never placed a trade in their lives and they can't care less about the reliability of the services at the user's end.