What Is Real Time?
Real time is whena system relays information to a user at a speed that is near-instantaneous or has a short delay from when the event occurred. Online brokerages often provide a real-time data feed that displays stock quotes and their respective real-time changes, with a very insignificant lag time, so that clients can base their investing decisions on the most up-to-date information.
Key Takeaways
- Real time refers to information that is relayed at the time it happens, or with only a short delay.
- In financial markets, real time is a reference to the price of a security and the accuracy of the pricing is crucial to market participants.
- Many financial networks, websites, and apps provide delayed quotes, which show where a stock or currency stood 15 or 20 minutes ago.
- Delayed quotes areusually enough information for a casual investor who isn’t looking to time the market.
- Some brokerages and certain paid services that traders use provide real-time, up-to-the-minute quotes.
Understanding Real Time
While many financial websites do offer free stock quotes to the general public, many of these feeds are not real-time feeds and may be delayed up to 20 minutes. Therefore, when viewing stock quotes from any financial website, be aware of the time that is posted near the stock quote to verify whether the quote is actually in real time.
Possessing accurate real-time quotes is especially important for traders, as even the smallest time discrepancy between a provided quote and the real-time situation can change a profitable position into a loss.
For rapid intra-day traders, especially, itcan be critical to get real-time quotes instead of delayed quotes.
Real-Time Stock Quotes vs. Delayed Stock Quotes
Stock quotes reflect the results of actual trading on stock market exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ. Investors andtraders can getquotes on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, other indices, or individual stocks from a number of financial news sources. However, some financial news services don’t report real-time information andinsteaddelay stock quotes for 15 or 20 minutes.
The prices of actively traded stocks can fluctuate dramaticallyfrom minute to minute orfrom second to second. That's why knowing the current price is imperative. In a rapidly rising or falling market, also known as a fast market, even real-time quotes can have a hard time keeping up. In that market scenario, a quote that’s delayed 15 or 20 minutes is virtually useless, as a stock's price could have moved by a significant percentage in that time frame.
Delayed quotes areusually enough information for a casual investor who isn’t looking to time the market. For example, if a traderhasa long-term portfolio of stocks theydon’t intend to sell, theydon’t need up-to-the-second price information. Even delayed stock quotes provide ageneral ballpark of where stocks and indexesare, and whether they are trending up or down.
Providing real-time quotes takes effort and technology; thus, this service has a cost. If firms don’t want to absorb this cost, they’ll only offer delayed quotes. Reuters, for example, provides lots of financial information, but its stock quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes.Financial news services often offer real-timequotes as a premium subscription service.
