Market Data
What is market data?
Market data is the data issued by a trading venue, such as a stock exchange to inform traders and investors about the latest prices of financial instruments such as shares, derivatives, commodities and currencies.
Where have you heard about market data?
Market data is a key part of financial news. You may have seen it on news websites such as the BBC or Reuters, who offer up-to-date market data information.
What you need to know about market data...
Market data allows you both to see current prices of investment products, and to identify historical trends. It can, as a result, help you decide which products are likely to make a good investment.
Trading methods such as high-frequency trading utilise this data to make on-the-spot decisions about investments, making the speed market data is distributed extremely important.
Market data will generally give information including a product's ticker symbol, latest bid price and ask price, the time of the last quote and trade, and the price and size of the last sale.