Slashdot Log In
Google to Offer Real-Time Stock Quotes
Posted by
kdawson
on Mon Jun 02, 2008 09:38 PM
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."
Related Stories
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Simpsons already did it. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:5, Informative)
F. ex: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=IBM [yahoo.com] shows IBM quotes going back to 1962.
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:5, Informative)
Are you sure? Read the fine print at the bottom of the Yahoo finance page next time:
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Yahoo users - don't be fooled (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Re:Yahoo users - don't be fooled (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Ctrl-r (Score:5, Interesting)
Guess you missed the end part where Yahoo said:
...that doesn't strike me as free and real-time.
"Forced" by whom, and how?
Parent
Re:Ctrl-r (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Are you reading the bottom of the same http://finance.yahoo.com/ [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....
Bzzt wrong (Score:3, Interesting)
But continue to be uninformed all you want.
FIRST POST!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
All post data delayed 15 minutes for Slashdot. Sigs are updated automatically, but will be turned off after 25 minutes of inactivity.
Parent
Re:Simpsons already did it. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/24927068/site/14081545/ [cnbc.com]
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.
Parent
I got 'em in E*Trade readily enough. (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.
This is a big deal... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is a big deal... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Maybe to some, not to me. (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Maybe to some, not to me. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Who needs real time stock quotes? (Score:5, Funny)
Now people are getting excited over "real time"? bah!
Give me "In 10 Minutes" stock quotes and I'll pay for that!
Re:Who needs real time stock quotes? (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!
Parent
Re:Who needs real time stock quotes? (Score:4, 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.
Parent
This is a NASDAQ story, not a Google story (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 [cnn.com] 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 [cnet.com] 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.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Welp (Score:5, Funny)
Screw Stock Quotes (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The stock quotes could be win or lose, but a video feed will always be entertaining.
Google vs Bloomberg (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Not just Google. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Yawn...free real time at eTrade since 1996 (Score:4, Informative)
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
Not Realtime (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Real time or delayed? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Real time or delayed? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Real time or delayed? (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:ja1217 (Score:5, Informative)
Hahahahahahahahahaha. PLEASE keep thinking that. How do you think companies like D.E. Shaw & Co. [deshaw.com] exist? Not to mention Goldman Sachs [gs.com], 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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
Re:ja1217 (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Prediction systems (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.
Parent
Re:ja1217 (Score:4, Informative)
The minute you can make a program that can do it, you have, essentially, a "forumla" for the stock market.
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.
Parent
Re:I'm curious about the bandwidth (Score:4, Insightful)
We're talking about two entirely different beasts.
Parent
Re:How will Google make money? (Score:5, Insightful)
How does Google make money at anything? They'll sell your eyeballs to advertisers.
Parent