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Google to Offer Real-Time Stock Quotes

Apro+im writes "Today, Google announced that Google Finance will report real-time prices on NASDAQ-listed securities. While real-time stock quotes are not new, they have long encumbered with subscriptions, legal agreements, or pay software. This may be the first free source for real-time quotes."

63 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Simpsons already did it. by X43B · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yahoo! does this already.

    1. Re:Simpsons already did it. by lilfields · · Score: 5, Informative

      I don't know why this is flamebait, Yahoo did actually start doing this about a month ago, but got no Slashdot coverage. I'm glad to see it done, 15 minutes/20 minutes were the actual delay times, and were kind of annoying...not 3 hours as some people have already stated. Anyhow, most brokers give you real-time quotes for free, such as Scottrade...others are a bit more stingy about it...such as ING. Hopefully this will force brokerage firms to lighten up on their lower tier subscription fees.

    2. Re:Simpsons already did it. by UncleTogie · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yahoo! does this already.

      Are you sure? Read the fine print at the bottom of the Yahoo finance page next time:

      Quotes are updated automatically, but will be turned off after 25 minutes of inactivity. Quote data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, 20 minutes for NYSE and Amex. Real-Time continuous streaming quotes are available through our premium service.
      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
    3. Re:Simpsons already did it. by Wister285 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Assuming Google quotes NASDAQ directly, the difference is that Yahoo! quotes ECNs instead as the managing editor over at CNBC explains:

      http://www.cnbc.com/id/24927068/site/14081545/

      This has a wide range of implications, mainly how exchanges charge for their data. This will probably help NASDAQ to continue to put more pressure on the NYSE. It may be a good step though as I'd like to see the futures exchanges allow for their data services to be more freely available.

      It also helps to empower the individual investor as the gap between the institutions and in the individuals closes. This can have unintended consequences though in terms of volatility as the retail money may get more fidgety with this more timely data. Either way, it should be interesting to watch this develop.

    4. Re:Simpsons already did it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      yahoo used to do it, then they had to stop... legal stuff, at least that's what they said.

      For a while, they just removed the "realtime" button, but you could type in the extension manually to get realtime quotes. Then they disabled that. They probably still have a more sophisticated method, but the quick n dirty brute force version was disabled.

    5. Re:Simpsons already did it. by protohiro1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yahoo recently started offering realtime quotes: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=26853 Look during trading hours and you will see it them.

      --
      Sig removed because it was obnoxious
    6. Re:Simpsons already did it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Check during the day when the exchanges are open.

      Not only do they have real time quotes for NASDAQ, they also have real time for NYSE. Google is NASDAQ only.

      http://ycorpblog.com/2008/05/28/real-time-stock-quotes-on-the-house/

    7. Re:Simpsons already did it. by DriedClexler · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm more interested in being able to search the 20+ year history of a stock, mutual fund, index (with dividend reinvestment), or futures contract. They only seem to let you go back 10 years, or not see the result of dividend reinvestment. Even google finance only lets you go back a few years in many cases.

      Interestingly enough, people on investing forums casually reference these values as if they're easy to get, but I've never seen a free source for that information.

      --
      Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
    8. Re:Simpsons already did it. by videoBuff · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080602/stocks_real_time_quotes.html?.v=3 BATS provides free real time quote to Yahoo. So Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. had to respond to that. Their business model is slightly different from BATS. After all BATS is trying to become an national securities exchange!

    9. Re:Simpsons already did it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People on investing forums probably don't care that the sources aren't free. I bet most of them are dealing with large enough sums of money that any fees for access to information are worth it. Information is money, if it will earn you more money you will pay for it.

    10. Re:Simpsons already did it. by sarcas · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yahoo! does this already.

      Are you sure? Read the fine print at the bottom of the Yahoo finance page next time:

      I am - Yahoo! Finance Launches Free Real-Time ECN Prices. Of course, both the Y! and Google finance teams have been trying to do this for a while - in our case (obvious disclaimer: I work for Y!, although not on Finance) we have to thank Bats Trading Inc for providing us with the data. It's not universal yet, but the blog post above indicates that we're working on it.

      Google don't indicate where they're getting their data from, but they've been fighting to do it for a while as well, and as they're starting out with NASDAQ, you can assume they'll be trying to roll it out to further exchanges and markets as well.

      All good for the market, as is the competition.

    11. Re:Simpsons already did it. by rmstar · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yahoo lets you download way more than 20 years of stock history, with and without taking into account dividends. You can even download all that in a .csv.

      F. ex: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=IBM shows IBM quotes going back to 1962.

    12. Re:Simpsons already did it. by dintech · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The problem is, this is only open and close prices. If you want to write algoritms that run on actual tick data (what realtime algos are actually useful for), you have no way to back-test it without collecting your own data first.

      My job involves persisting tick data from a Reuters feed for large investment company and the amount of data we collect every day for 16 exchanges in Europe is huge. Something like 25Gb (growing exponentially) and that's being selective about which stocks to capture.

    13. Re:Simpsons already did it. by sammy+baby · · Score: 3, Funny

      Imagine Safeway asking you to buy stake based on the price it was sold for 20 minutes ago. . Seriously? That's a pretty bad comparison. I mean... it's not like steak prices are prone to precipitous drops because, say, the CEO of Angus International was caught siphoning off corporate funds to build a love nest for his heifer mistress.

      Or something. Look, my point is that stock prices are a lot more volatile than food prices. If you want a good analogy, go to an analogy... making... person.
    14. Re:Simpsons already did it. by Zen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the GP is really trying to do something as extensive as you are, I would hope they don't expect to be able to find that data for free. 25Gig a day for a few hundred or thousand stocks is a lot of traffic. I would never expect someone to extrapolate the data, collate, host, and allow me to download that for free every day. That should definitely be a pay service.

    15. Re:Simpsons already did it. by corbettw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My job involves persisting tick data from a Reuters feed for large investment company and the amount of data we collect every day for 16 exchanges in Europe is huge. Something like 25Gb (growing exponentially) and that's being selective about which stocks to capture. I think you just answered your own question. Anything that requires that kind of storage on a daily basis isn't going to be cheap to provide access to. And since Joe Daytrader isn't going to care, but companies creating new investment products will, I can't see the viability of providing access to that data for free. That doesn't mean someone won't (or hasn't) done it, just that it seems like the kind of thing that someone would charge for access to.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  2. I got 'em in E*Trade readily enough. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Informative

    I got free real-time quotes with my E*Trade account readily enough. You do need to open an account and log in each time, and you do need to accept a legal agreement, but I don't think you need to actually pay for them.

    The legal agreement was mostly "you can't sue us, or NASDAQ, or the NYSE or anybody, for giving you these quotes... and you can't, like, republish these to other people". It didn't seem excessive.

    I guess Google will be more convenient than these, but it's not a huge deal. Besides, if you actually care about a 15-minute delay, you'll have your brokerage account open anyway.

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  3. Re:Real time or delayed? by bucky0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looking back on the google finance blog, they apparently went to the SEC and asked to get a feed straight from the source. I think it's gonna be as real time as possible

    --

    -Bucky
  4. This is a big deal... by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Insightful

    tons of subscription services will lose most of their user base overnight - not just the ones charging for real time quotes, but also all the free sites that only offer delayed quotes. It could even have implications for market as a whole, because a whole lot more amateur investors will be getting involved in watching real-time activity. Evil though they may be, it's hard to deny that google gets their product offerings dead-on nearly all the time.

    1. Re:This is a big deal... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "tons" of subscription services will not lose most of their user base overnight as "tons" of subscription services offer more services than just "real-time quotes." Including research/reports, customer service, stock trading, etc... This is a non-issue.

    2. Re:This is a big deal... by joocemann · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It is a big deal, and it is a good one. Long story short, people charging to repeat information to you will be shafted by a company like Google that can do that simple task for free. Very cool. Hell, why should we be paying subscriptions for someone to tell me public info?

  5. Re:Real time or delayed? by Clover_Kicker · · Score: 5, Funny

    If only the article contained this information...

  6. Who needs real time stock quotes? by ForestGrump · · Score: 5, Funny

    First it was "15 minutes delayed" stock quotes being all the rage.

    Now people are getting excited over "real time"? bah!

    Give me "In 10 Minutes" stock quotes and I'll pay for that!

    --
    Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
    1. Re:Who needs real time stock quotes? by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


      Give me "In 10 Minutes" stock quotes and I'll pay for that!

      I just bought several hundred thousand shares of some stocks that are supposed to go through the roof next week. Many emails from good friends who's names I don't recognize recommended them!

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    2. Re:Who needs real time stock quotes? by Prof.Phreak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ironically, nobody. At least not at the personal level. Hedge funds need'em in order to buy/sell ETFs in relation to the underlying---and hopefully do it quicker than anyone else (ie: making the market `efficient'---by making a profit!)

      At consumer level... if you care for ``real time quotes'', you're not investing, you're gambling.

      --

      "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy

  7. This is a NASDAQ story, not a Google story by nodwick · · Score: 5, Informative

    While I know Google makes for good news, this story is in fact more about the exchanges loosening their grip on quote restrictions than it is a feel-good Google story.

    Historically the exchanges have required anyone offering free quotes to delay them 15-20 minutes since a big part of their revenue stream derived from charging brokerages for real-time quotes. (Brokerages in turn only offered this service to their customers.) NASDAQ announced a deal to allow Google, the Wall Street Journal, and CNBC to show real-time quotes for free. Yahoo Finance announced a similar deal with a different group (BATS Trading) to phase free real-time quotes throughout its site also.

    Looks like the internet continues to bring down barriers to information.

    1. Re:This is a NASDAQ story, not a Google story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      To be fair though, Google did spend a lot of effort lobbying the SEC to do this. I read a while back their argument to the SEC and it was well done. Its a good example of a corporation using Washington lobbying to help the public while also helping themselves. Also the opening of this is not (as far as I know) limited to just Google. They have argued for an agreement that would make this information available to all, not just Google finance. Either way as a person who follows stocks I'm delighted to be able to get realtime pricing from Google or from any other site.

    2. Re:This is a NASDAQ story, not a Google story by DesignFlaw · · Score: 3, Informative

      Very True. This is actually a new feed from Nasdaq called NLS (Nasdaq Last Sale). They have been working on it for quite some time and most major financial news sites went live with it today. AOL, MarketWatch, Google, WSJ and Yahoo are using this feed.

  8. Welp by Ritontor · · Score: 5, Funny

    I feel a great disturbance on the Internet. As if millions of tenuous business models suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

    --
    Perhaps the answer to the problem of teenagers dropping bricks from motorway and railway bridges is to sue Tetris.
  9. Re:Big deal by greg1104 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Have you tried http://www.opentick.com/ ? It's not always free, but it's so cheap it's close.

  10. Re:ja1217 by pyite · · Score: 4, Informative

    The best you can do is make a psuedo-ai that can make guesses based on data. And again, no one's made a computer good enough at guessing that it makes money.

    Hahahahahahahahahaha. PLEASE keep thinking that. How do you think companies like D.E. Shaw & Co. exist? Not to mention Goldman Sachs, etc.

    The reason I get a paycheck twice is month, in part, is because you can create efficient algorithms to make money in financial markets. But please don't let that dissuade you from your obviously very informed opinion.

    --

    "Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman

  11. Screw Stock Quotes by Joebert · · Score: 2, Funny
    Screw real time stock quotes, I want real time feeds to video cameras in the 50th floor offices of investment bankers when the US economy completely tanks.

    Bill: $50 says he jumps.
    Johnny: You're on !

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  12. Google vs Bloomberg by TibbonZero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As some of you may or may not know, Bloomberg provides huge amounts of financial data to investment banks/firms via "Bloomberg Terminals" that Bloomberg offers. These terminals are very expensive to the firms. Yet all they offer is information. Information is something that Google excels at. I've used these Bloomberg terminals and they aren't exactly technology that you'd think of as cutting edge for 2008. Data is often inaccurate and researching things on them is an art.

    I've wondered if Google might just enter the financial data market strongly. Google knows how to deal with large amount of data better than many places that are somewhat stuck in the past.

    --
    Tibbon
    tibbon.com
  13. Re:Real time or delayed? by nmb3000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    If only the article contained this information...

    I think I can speak for everyone when I say that nobody who values their time RTFA, after all it's just superfluous details that aren't needed to post comments. In fact, based on a lot of the comments I read, I assume that many people are so busy they cannot even RTFS. This too is understandable to some extent since the summary is just a wordy version of the article title. This is, however, the first time I've met somebody who couldn't bother to RTFT.

    Short version: RTFT.

    --
    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
  14. Re:I'm curious about the bandwidth by espiesp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A few numbers vs. high resolution video...

    We're talking about two entirely different beasts.

  15. Not just Google. by LargeMythicalReptile · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not just Google that's doing this. CNBC and the Wall Street Journal also started providing free real-time quotes today. MSN Money has been doing this for a while.

    Granted, some of these require a subscription (MSN, WSJ)--a point noted by the submitter--but all of these services appear to be free-as-in-beer. I don't think a subscription is that big a deal; YMMV.

    From what I can tell, CNBC doesn't mention either a subscription or a daily/monthly limit; I admit I haven't looked at their service in detail though.

  16. Re:How will Google make money? by chromatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd like to know how Google will make its money on this particular service. How?

    How does Google make money at anything? They'll sell your eyeballs to advertisers.

  17. Prediction systems by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While the formula may be hugely complex, if such a formula exists, it's kinda self destroying, because the stock market exists in a way because there is no formula.

    That's the only part of the above posting that's true. There have been successful technical analysis systems over the years. The trouble is that once someone finds a working strategy for beating the market and uses it on a large scale, others notice and replicate it, and it becomes the market. There's also a failure mode where structured investment vehicles are constructed in such a way that they have a high probability of a continual small gain coupled with a small probability of a big loss, for a negative expectation overall. (See "Long Term Capital Management".)

    So much programmed trading activity is going on that it's most of the market now. That's why the number of transactions has become so high.

  18. Maybe to some, not to me. by Gordo_1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The vast majority of investors should ignore the minute by minute blows of the market. At this time scale the market is literally a big roulette wheel. Virtually all day traders and every amateur who thinks they can reliably extract disproportionate gains out of the market long-term (i.e. more than they would by say, holding an appropriate mix of diversified indexes) are fooling themselves into making predictions on what essentially amounts to sheer randomness. Think I'm crazy? Do yourself a favor and read A Random Walk Down Wall Street and save yourself the decade it took me to figure out how the market works. You're welcome.

    1. Re:Maybe to some, not to me. by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      Yeah but it's way more 'fun' to watch the ups and downs.... I mean if you've got nothing better to do than watch a line graph ;-p

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    2. Re:Maybe to some, not to me. by Eivind · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is very VERY true. Speculation is, afterall, a zero-sum-game. You can only beat the average of the market to precisely the same degree that someone else underperforms the market. The only sure winners are the brokers collecting transaction-fees.

      Now -investment- is *not* a zero-sum game, over time most companies turn a profit (those who don't go bankrupt), and so buying random stock at random times and keeping it until you need the money will, on the average, give you precisely the same return as the market-average.

      The Random Walk book gives good advice, except I personally prefer just naked stocks instead of index-funds. For the fairly simple reason that index-funds have -low- costs (typically 0.2%/year or thereabouts) whereas holding random stock has -zero- overhead-cost pro year.

      4% pro year over 30 years give 324% (4% above inflation is a fair longterm guess for the stockmarket) 4.2% over the same period gives 344%. It's not a big deal though, either is sound advice.

      index funds make sense if you ain't got enough money to invest to get an acceptable diversity yourself. Personally I change from index-funds to raw stocks when I can afford to hold 10+ different stock in a market. (which means for example for OSE, you'd need on the order of $20K)

      Also in most funds, the fund-managers are technically the owners of the stock, and you own only a part of the fund. Which means, for example, that you don't get a vote on the general assembly. Instead the fund-managers get to vote -- even though it's YOUR money that bougth the stock.

    3. Re:Maybe to some, not to me. by LordKronos · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was thinking he was just talking about things like how people react in real time to a presentation being given. A bad point is brought up and the stock starts dropping. Then the bad point is put into context with something like "but this downturn has provided us the opportunity to improve..." and suddenly the stock shoots up. And then repeat over and over. It's interesting to see how bi-polar investors behave.

      From an investment point of view, this could be helpful, because it could help you better gauge what sort of things appear to be most important to the market and help you make future decisions.

  19. Barrons.com Free Real-time Quotes by Skizzo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Coincidentally, Barrons.com announced free real-time quotes today too http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121237840349237093.html

  20. Yawn...free real time at eTrade since 1996 by BrianCarlstrom · · Score: 4, Informative

    eTrade has had free real time quotes with a free account for over a decade. For those that really want/need this information, it was not hard to get.

    It is good if you can avoid an account, even a free one, to get this information now, but this seems a little over hyped to be on /.

  21. Yahoo users - don't be fooled by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Yahoo users - don't be fooled by simple "Web 2.0", and "AJAX" magic. It's just a bunch of javascripts refreshing your browswer... on a time delay.

    On occasion, I have seen quotes for FDRXX (money market fund) report 123,000%+ on finance.yahoo.com, so you still have to think once in a while, as wonderful as the Internet is, it is not perfect.

    And to be a bit off-topic and rambling, it will not be technical hurdles that "kill" the Internet, it will be lawyers and legislators, mark my words.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    1. Re:Yahoo users - don't be fooled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey, I just did it - in FireFox 2.0.0.14 (Win XP), I went to http://finance.yahoo.com/ and typed fdrxx into the "get quotes" box and got 2.56% for a second, then it magically updated to 122,816.10% Wow! where do I invest!

  22. Re:ja1217 by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Informative

    No one's done anything that is both efficient, accurate, and smart enough that it makes money.

    The minute you can make a program that can do it, you have, essentially, a "forumla" for the stock market. Uhhhh... invest in a financial instrument that is made up of S&P 500 or Fortune 500 stocks and you're guaranteed to make money in the long term. That's why everyone compares their rate of return to the S&P 500.

    The only reason you would lose money in the stock market is if the entire stock market is tanking or if you've put most of your eggs in one (poorly performing) basket.
    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  23. Not Realtime by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I used to produce infosystems for traders and equities researchers/promoters on Wall Street (and in Toronto) during the 1990s Bubble. When those brokers say "realtime", they are talking about delays that are under 1 second. They're talking about WANs, LANs and apps at both client and server that have next to no latency. Because for their hottest traders, the software that makes them $billions a day, any edge in faster info means beating the competition.

    The time to hit a Google page of "realtime" quotes is going to be at least a couple seconds, to say nothing of how long Google takes to get them from the market infosystems (which could be under 1s, because Google is rich and smart). That's not the realtime that real brokers pay for. It's better than 15-minute delayed quotes, which is what you usually get for free. But let's not call something realtime that isn't, even if it's free. That's the kind of BS that made the 1990s Bubble such a catastrophe, despite the best infosystems to deliver it that money could buy.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  24. Re:ja1217 by nelsonal · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're just a little late to the party, brokers call theirs program trading, and hedge funds call theirs black box/anylitical trading. It's probably 60-80% of the shares traded on any given day.

    --
    Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
  25. I don't think real-time feed == real-time market by stypica · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought the whole point of the delay was so that we don't reproduce the crash that happened in what? '87? Which was exacerbated by real time software being triggered to sell in a downward spiral after the stock market had dropped a certain amount.

    I need to confirm that, but is that only the rule for NYSE, or US exchanges as a whole?

  26. Re:Ctrl-r by UncleTogie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just because they stop streaming after 25 minutes doesn't mean they aren't providing free real-time quotes.

    Guess you missed the end part where Yahoo said:

    Quote data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, 20 minutes for NYSE and Amex. Real-Time continuous streaming quotes are available through our premium service.

    ...that doesn't strike me as free and real-time.

    not just talking about yahoo, although they provided them years ago but were forced to discontinue them a few years ago.

    "Forced" by whom, and how?

    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  27. I beg to differ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except that it is done on a regular basis by a lot of people. Technical analysis is basically the field of automated stock trading techniques. Granted, many technical traders don't have a program do the buying and selling, but many do.

    Unless you meant that it can't be done in a way that guarantees a profit ... in which case you are still wrong. Arbitrage trades exist in many markets, but you'd better make sure you have the lowest latency connection to the exchange.

    For the most part, market makers have to be daft to not make money. And there are computerized market makers.

  28. Re:I don't think real-time feed == real-time marke by stypica · · Score: 2, Interesting

    hate to reply to my own post - after digging through 570,000 ads for ticker software (what the hell?) I find that I was misinformed.

    The NYSE has "breakers" in place that close the markets after certain percentage drops so that auto-trading won't continue the downward spiral.

    external link to definition of "Rule 80b"

  29. Re:Ctrl-r by protohiro1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You are wrong. It is free, it is real time: "Quotes delayed, except where indicated otherwise." During trading hours most quotes are real time. Press release: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=26853

    --
    Sig removed because it was obnoxious
  30. Re:ja1217 by lazlo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's been done. It's being done. I find it interesting that Renaissance Technologies' Nova fund, which is basically a computer program, from my understanding, some days makes over 10% of the total volume of trades on the NASDAQ.

    --
    Pound! Bang! Bin! Bash! is this a shell script or a Batman comic?
  31. Re:How would they open a window? by Joebert · · Score: 2, Funny

    Aren't the windows sealed after a certain level? I mean how would they even open a window to jump in the first place? And the glass is pretty tough as well so breaking it wouldn't be too easy.

    I laughed for two days when the dog I adopted from the shelter ran fullspeed into the fullsize window next to the sliding glass door on our way out.

    The stock quotes could be win or lose, but a video feed will always be entertaining.
    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  32. Re:Ctrl-r by UncleTogie · · Score: 2, Informative

    Are you reading the bottom of the same http://finance.yahoo.com/ page that the rest of us get?

    They state clearly, once again, at the bottom of said page:

    Historical chart data and daily updates provided by Commodity Systems, Inc. (CSI). International historical chart data and daily updates provided by Hemscott Americas. Fundamental company data provided by Capital IQ. Quotes and other information supplied by independent providers identified on the Yahoo! Finance partner page. Quotes are updated automatically, but will be turned off after 25 minutes of inactivity. Quote data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, 20 minutes for NYSE and Amex. Real-Time continuous streaming quotes are available through our premium service.

    Unless you think they're yanking our chain, that's the disclaimer as of 3 minutes ago. Seems pretty clear, doesn't it? In addition, according to the page you gave us on the Yahoo quotes:

    The data comes via a deal with BATS Trading, an independent exchange. While its information doesn't exactly dovetail with the quotes other bigger exchanges would provide for individual stocks, BATS is said to be pretty close.

    Pretty close? Good way to lose your shirt....

    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  33. Bzzt wrong by MushMouth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    During trading hours the part that of their quote page that currently says "after hours" says "real-time" which is "indicating otherwise" when it comes to the disclaimer on the bottom.

    But continue to be uninformed all you want.

  34. Re:ja1217 by aeschenkarnos · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I'm struck by the irony.

    The reason I get a paycheck twice [a] month

    and ...

    you can create efficient algorithms to make money in financial markets

    If these algorithms actually worked, why would you need to be working for somebody else?

  35. FIRST POST!!!! by flyingsquid · · Score: 4, Funny
    First post!!!

    All post data delayed 15 minutes for Slashdot. Sigs are updated automatically, but will be turned off after 25 minutes of inactivity.

  36. Re:ja1217 by pyite · · Score: 3, Informative

    If these algorithms actually worked, why would you need to be working for somebody else?

    I never said I was creating these algorithms. While that could be fun and interesting, I only have a recreational interest in financial mathematics. Those that actually work on methods to make money in this manner typically have PhDs in varying fields (engineering, math, physics).

    I said that this sort of thing pays my bills because I work for a Wall St. firm that makes some of its money doing this.

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    "Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman

  37. Re:holy cow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think that may have been you...

  38. Not Tick by Tick by Danimoth · · Score: 2, Informative

    I took a second to look at both Yahoo! and Google's quote system compared to my Thomson machine (actual real time, tick by tick quotes, market depth, etc.) and neither gave true real time reporting of the consolidated tape. Google seems to go off of the primary market center only, which for a heavily traded stock isn't so bad. For something a little thinner you could be getting quotes that can be very misleading. Yahoo, well, I couldn't figure out where they were getting their quotes, as they were some times dramatically different to actual quotes. Long story short, be careful.

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    No smoking sigs indoors.