Real time is when information is processed by a system and provided to the users almost instantaneously or with a minimum delay after an event has occurred. In financial markets, real-time market data is streamed by online brokerages for their clients.

Real time is when information is processed by a system and provided to the users almost instantaneously or with a minimum delay after an event has occurred. In financial markets, the real-time market data is streamed by online brokerages for their clients, who rely on that data when managing their investments. The real-time data feed includes up-to-date stock quotes and the relative changes, which market participants use to make predictions or act on.

When Real-time stock quotes are key

When it comes to keeping up with the stock market, anyone interested in finance can visit financial websites and online services to view the real-time stock quotes for free. Even though numbers you see there are updated regularly, they can be delayed by up to 20 minutes and misguide you in your investing decisions. That is to say, when looking at stock listings, remember to check the ‘last updated’ graph to make sure they are actual at the moment of your transaction.

Getting exact numbers in real time is crucial to the success of the traders who buy stocks to market the price. Even the smallest lag time between a market change and update can cause data inaccuracy or turn a possible capital gain into a loss. It is especially critical for intraday traders, who transact on the market throughout the day and make multiple trades at once.

Real-time vs delayed quotes

Generally speaking, stock quotes represent the ongoing trades on exchange markets, pushing stock prices up and down. With actively traded stocks, these fluctuations take place every few seconds. In the situation of a fast market, where prices are rapidly growing or going down, even the real-time feeds can hardly keep up the price movement, not to mention delayed quotes. Those end up completely irrelevant because the quotes can change by a large percentage in a 15-20 minute perspective.

For some investors, delayed quotes are acceptable. Those who invest capital for a long period of time and don’t sell their holdings to time the market can get enough information from a delayed quote. It still provides a general range of their stock or indexes value and clearly gives a sense of where the prices are moving.

Real-time data stream services

To know how the market landscape is changing in result of the many transactions sending the trends up and down, market participants use the services of financial news companies like Dow Jones Industrial Average. In fact, financial news and up-to-date stock price lists are publicly displayed on any related websites, financial networks and apps, and can be monitored for free. The bad thing is, the market data is reported by many with at least a 10-minute delay.

Real-time data services are quite costly, as they require substantial technical improvements that would allow to process robust data streams. Business & financial news companies that do not want to cover those costs display delayed stock quotes. Reuters, one of the leading platforms, is full of useful insights, but their data is posted with at least 15 minute delay. Some information sources offer their users to buy premium subscription or membership to access real-time quotes.