FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Adding real time content to your websites and applications has recently become easy and cheaper than you might think. Contact IFS for a quote or to discuss your requirements.
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions:
Q: What are MTFs?
A: MTF stands for Multilateral Trading Facility, which is a system operated by a market operator or investment firm and allows buying and selling of financial
instruments. Currently there are 4 major MTFs operating in Europe, these are Chi-X, Turquoise, BATS Europe and NASDAQ OMX Europe. Between them they account for
around 15-20 percent of on-book trading in major European stocks (Jan 2009).
Q: What instruments are traded on the MTFs?
A: MTFs provide trading for around 1000 of the most liquidly traded stocks and shares in Europe. For instance all the stocks of the FTSE 350, DAX, AEX and CAC indices are covered.
To see the latest list of tradable instruments on each Exchange, click on the following links:
CHI-X
Turquoise
Nasdaq OMX
BATS
Q: Are the real time prices really free to end users?
A: All the MTFs we provide data for have a free price redistribution policy so there are no per user exchange fees for use of the data.
Apart from the data feed fees you pay to IFS there are no other costs and / or adminstration requirements
for providing real time prices to your customers. You may have to sign a Market Data Licence agreement with each exchange. IFS can provide you with the appropriate
exchange contacts.
Q: What happens if the MTFs change their market data fee models?
A: We will continue to supply you the data, however, you may then need to update your Market Data Agreement with the exchange that is
changing it's policy. If the new policy means you are unable to continue to use the real time data effectively we will allow you to cancel
any contract you have with us.
Q: How 'realtime' is the data?
A: The data retuned by the EVA RT service is based on full real time snapshots of Level 1 and Level 2 market data for all instruments accross all MTF exchanges
aggregated every 2 seconds (or more frequently) on IFS' servers.
So the data has a typical latency of approximately 0.5-2.5 seconds measured from exchange source
to end user. This is dependant on the timing of the user's query.
Q: Do you distribute every tick / trade update via the EVA RT XML Service?
A: For more active stocks, several price update messages are collated into each two second update. As such, the XML Web Service is not
suitable for collecting a full history of price changes during a trading day. If lower latency or a complete set of price or order book
update messages is required, then IFS offer a separate MTF Data Feed providing a consolidated stream of all market data update messages
for all MTF exchanges. This feed typically provides many thousands of update messages per second. Contact us for more details.