Why isn't all market data free?
Why isn't all market data free?
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Rage With The Machine · External communityPost link
External question — Quantitative Finance Stack Exchange
Author: Rage With The Machine
Original post: https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/3591
License: CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed.
I am hoping any answers can be threaded somewhere between "don't be naive" and starting a quasi-political flame.
Transparency is suppose to be good for markets and also a social good. The market reflecting the availability of all known information is a premise accepted by many. Why then is the disparity between access to available information based on what a market participant can afford so widely and readily accepted?
I acknowledge that there is some cost involved in transmitting real-time data, order flow, etc., for instance, but how significant is it? Is it impractical technically or financially when it is amortized over all market players?
Less controversial, why is tick data, etc., not made available free to the public at the end of day? Why is this any more proprietary or the property of a market than the outcome of a baseball game? If by making it freely available data brokers have less incentive to store data why not make that the responsibility of the regulatory agencies (e.g. SEC or whatnot)?
Are there technical or other reasons, aside from powerful financial incentives, to keep things the way they are?
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Quoted from Forex.com.bd-Editorial External question — Quantitative Finance Stack Exchange Author: Rage With The Machine Source score (net votes, not local likes): 12 Original post: https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/3591 License: CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. I am hoping any answers can be threaded somewhere between "don't be naive" and starting a quasi-political flame. Transparency is suppose to be good for markets and also a social good. The market reflecting the availability of all known information is a premise accepted by many. Why then is the disparity between access to available information based on what a market participant can afford so widely and readily accepted? I acknowledge that there is some cost involved in transmitting real-time data, order flow, etc., for instance, but how significant is it? Is it impractical technically or financially when it is amortized over all market players? Less controversial, why is tick data, etc., not made available free to the public at the end of day? Why is this any more proprietary or the property of a market than the outcome of a baseball game? If by making it freely available data brokers have less incentive to store data why not make that the responsibility of the regulatory agencies (e.g. SEC or whatnot)? Are there technical or other reasons, aside from powerful financial incentives, to keep things the way they are?
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