NEW YORK — Trading firms that get their market data straight from the stock exchanges have a slender advantage in speed, but even that minimal head start will be whittled down significantly by next year.
By the middle of 2011, the data feeds that combine and send out the best quotes and prices for all of NYSE Euronext’s listed stocks will be one millisecond — one thousandth of a second — slower than the direct feed, NYSE officials said. Data for Nasdaq-listed stocks are expected to reach a similar speed next year, Nasdaq OMX Group officials said.
Currently, it takes about three to four milliseconds for the New York Stock Exchange to consolidate the data from all of its stock exchanges, format them, calculate the national best prices and distribute the information. That is a big improvement from the 800 milliseconds it took before April 2007.
The idea that firms with direct access to market data could have less of a leg up on the rest of the industry cheered those who worry over the data disparity.
