Which market data feed is right for your trading? Even the best strategy delivers no reliable results if the market data is incomplete, delayed or faulty.
This comparison shows the differences between free price data and professional real-time feeds – and what really matters when choosing.
A data feed is the technical connection between an exchange or data provider and a piece of software. Without a data feed, a trading platform receives no current market information. Examples of what is transmitted:
Many traders invest a lot of time in strategies, chart techniques, software and backtesting – and overlook the fact that the quality of all analysis depends directly on the quality of the market data.
Professional traders therefore regard their data supply as an important success factor.
Not every data feed is suitable for the same requirements.
Current market data without relevant delay – high data quality, ideal for trading.
Prices with typically 1–15 minutes of delay. Usually cheap, sometimes free – but not for active trading, as signals arrive late.
Past market data as tick, intraday or daily data – for backtesting, strategy development, research and market analysis.
Direct access from your own applications – for automation, flexibility and custom systems.
Different markets are needed depending on the trading style – a good feed covers as many relevant ones as possible.
Deutsche Börse, Xetra, NYSE, NASDAQ, Euronext.
Eurex, CME, CBOT, COMEX, NYMEX.
EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF.
DAX, MDAX, Euro STOXX 50, Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100.
Gold, silver, oil, natural gas, copper.
One of the most common questions in trading.
For: day trading, futures, intraday.
For active trading, real-time data is usually the better choice.
Tick data is among the most valuable data of all: it stores every price change, every tick, volume information and timestamps.
TAI-PAN delivers worldwide price data for a wide range of trading software. There is a matching data feed for every supported programme – here is the overview with direct links.
For your own applications and automated systems, the API interface is also available.
Not every data feed offers the same quality.
Market data must be complete, correct and consistent.
The lower the latency, the better – especially for day traders and automated systems.
Tick histories, intraday and daily data for backtests and analysis.
Stable operation without unnecessary outages.
The broader the coverage, the more flexible the use.
Competent support saves time and avoids technical problems.
| Feature | Basic data feed | Professional data feed |
|---|---|---|
| Latency | delayed | real-time |
| Tick & intraday data | rare | complete |
| Order book / market depth | no | available |
| History | short | multi-year |
| API access | restricted | full |
| Reliability | variable | stable |
Many traders make the same mistakes – usually because the focus is solely on price.
“Poor data inevitably leads to poor decisions.”
Successful traders focus not only on strategies, but pay equal attention to data quality, stability, speed and history – because every analysis is based on the market data provided.
Anyone who regularly makes trading decisions benefits from high-quality market data:
A data feed is a continuous connection through which market prices are delivered to trading software in real time or with a delay.
The key factors are latency, tick/intraday availability, order book support, reliability and compatibility with your own trading software.
TAI-PAN Realtime, NinjaTrader, ATAS, AgenaTrader, Sierra Chart, MultiCharts, Quantower and many other platforms.
Real-time feeds deliver prices with virtually no delay. Delayed feeds show prices with a 15–20 minute lag – unsuitable for active trading.
What matters is real-time availability, data quality, historical data, API access, market coverage and stability.
Anyone wanting to analyse and trade successfully over the long term should pay as much attention to data supply as to trading strategy.