A price feed is part of a broader data and execution path. A vendor comparison should show what was measured, at which endpoint and during which market conditions.
Follow the evidence
Trace how the event could reach markets, then inspect a competing explanation.
Compare explanations
Switch lenses to see what each account explains—and what remains uncertain.
Record source and receipt timestamps, update intervals, sequence gaps, spread behavior and stale-quote duration. Synchronise clocks and test multiple instruments, endpoints and market periods, including scheduled high-activity windows. Look beyond an average latency figure. Tail behavior and recovery after a disconnect can matter more to operations than a single best-case number. Keep test parameters with the results so a second team can reproduce them.
Record source and receipt timestamps, update intervals, sequence gaps, spread behavior and stale-quote duration. Synchronise clocks and test multiple instruments, endpoints and market periods, including scheduled high-activity windows. Look beyond an average latency figure. Tail behavior and recovery after a disconnect can matter more to operations than a single best-case number. Keep test parameters with the results so a second team can reproduce them.
Request source transparency, maintenance notices, incident history, support escalation and evidence of resilience. Clarify what happens when one upstream contributor widens, pauses or stops sending data. A low headline price or a fast connection does not guarantee accurate quotes or better client outcomes. Compare contractual terms, data rights, auditability and a documented fallback before selecting a provider.
Coverage and freshness are separate from order execution
A vendor may distribute quotes from one or more sources and normalise them for downstream systems. The broker still needs to understand instrument definitions, session coverage, timestamps and how stale or out-of-sequence updates are handled.
The time to receive a quote is not the time to acknowledge or fill an order. Treat market-data delivery and order execution as separate paths with separate evidence.
Compare high-percentile outcomes, gaps and recovery
Record source and receipt timestamps, update intervals, sequence gaps, spread behavior and stale-quote duration. Synchronise clocks and test multiple instruments, endpoints and market periods, including scheduled high-activity windows.
Look beyond an average latency figure. Tail behavior and recovery after a disconnect can matter more to operations than a single best-case number. Keep test parameters with the results so a second team can reproduce them.
Ask who controls the source and how disputes are investigated
Request source transparency, maintenance notices, incident history, support escalation and evidence of resilience. Clarify what happens when one upstream contributor widens, pauses or stops sending data.
A low headline price or a fast connection does not guarantee accurate quotes or better client outcomes. Compare contractual terms, data rights, auditability and a documented fallback before selecting a provider.