Spot forex datafeeds

Hi

I am aware of a handful of interbank spot forex datafeeds.

These are -

EBS
Reuters?
GTIS
S&P Comstock.

Are there any other interbank spot forex datafeeds available other than the single source feeds provided by FXCM etc. - which represent their own quotes? if so, please name them?

In what order would you rank these in terms of importance/how widely used and recognised they are?

Are there any major differences between any of these datafeeds?

or,

Are they likely to be plotting pretty much the same prices at any given moment?


Many thanks

jtrader.

iq feed.net.you can choose to have data from barclays or tullett.feed into quootetracker

jtrader said:

Hi

I am aware of a handful of interbank spot forex datafeeds.

These are -

EBS
Reuters?
GTIS
S&P Comstock.

Are there any other interbank spot forex datafeeds available other than the single source feeds provided by FXCM etc. - which represent their own quotes? if so, please name them?

In what order would you rank these in terms of importance/how widely used and recognised they are?

Are there any major differences between any of these datafeeds?

or,

Are they likely to be plotting pretty much the same prices at any given moment?


Many thanks

jtrader.

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There are 3 multi-bank platforms not mentioned: Currenex, FXall, & FX Connect (State Street) but I am not aware of any way to get the data without having an account to trade on that platform.



Order of importance (usability):



1-EBS: the largest spot platform that handles 1/3 of the world's volume (130 billion a day), data feed available for CQG and Bloomberg Pro.



2-Reuters: formerly the largest platform that may still have the most liquidity for Cable, EUR/GBP, and the Australian Dollar. Only available through Reuters as far as I know.



3- S&P Comstock- An OK data feed that is a compilation of quotes from banks. Each bar on a chart will generally be a little longer than what actually happened on most platforms. Good enough to use longer term but not good enough for scalping.



4-GTIS- Absolute garbage, prices all over the place, I couldn't even imagine a use for this cr@p!





Cheers,

TRADERguy

Are there any brokers that us mere mortals can use that will give u quotes based on the EBS feed?

blade said:

Are there any brokers that us mere mortals can use that will give u quotes based on the EBS feed?

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To the best of my knowledge EBS data is only available on CQG, Bloomberg Pro, and EBS Live (the EBS platform that bypasses Bloomberg for increased execution speed that is used by some participating banks).

I don’t know of any brokers that specifically base their prices on EBS although many probably hedge some or all of their customer’s positions through EBS or through a bank that uses EBS.

TRADERguy said:

Also most if not all of the firms that run the arb computers for the CME currency futures have to be using EBS. The correlation and timing of shifts in the bids and asks are too close to be anything else.

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Can you give me a short explanation of what an arb computer for the CME currency futures does?
Thanks in advance.
JO

JumpOff said:

Can you give me a short explanation of what an arb computer for the CME currency futures does?
Thanks in advance.
JO

Click to expand...

When you do arbitrage you are looking to make a small risk free (or nearly risk free) profit due to pricing inequities. At any given time, you can calculate what the spread between the futures and the cash should be based on the interest rates in the two countries and the time left until the futures expire. Several firms, probably banks and maybe hedge funds, show size in bids and/or offers in the currency futures a tick or two outside the spread. If someone takes their bid or offer they will immediately offset the trade by taking the other side in the cash market. They will also take a bid or offer if it is out of line with the cash market. They earn a profit (the pip or two) and in exchange they provide liquidity to the futures market. Since the bids and offers need to be adjusted quickly and these trades need to be offset quickly, the whole process is done by computer (probably with a person monitoring it). There are more complicated examples with three currencies and other types of arb opportunities, but this should give you the general idea.

Cheers,
TRADERguy

Originally posted by TRADERguy
4-GTIS- Absolute garbage, prices all over the place, I couldn't even imagine a use for this cr@p!

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....Which is a shame because esignal is an excellent real-time charting package, yet esignal only use the GTIS interbank datafeed.
I think esignal should look to upgrade their interbank datafedd and use EBS, Reuters or even S&P Comstock.

I iamagine that the problem they would encounter would be in the additional price that they'd have to pass on to customers. If they were to upgrade and use the EBS or Reuters datafeed, how much approximately in additional charges do you think they would have to pass on?

I imagine that as time unwinds, things that are expensive - such as EBS or Reuters datafeeds will become affordable to the masses - through brokers, charting packages etc - as competition between companies increases and concessions continue to be made.

It seems that what all interbank forex traders need is one recognised datasource/data provider - to unify the interbank forex market - would you agree............Any thoughts on how likely this is to happen over the next few years?

Many thanks

jtrader.

It does seem that S&P Comstock, GTIS and esignal are linked with one another. However, I cannot tell the exact nature of these links. Check out the following links.

http://www.comstock-interactivedata.com/parent_company.shtml

http://www.comstock-interactivedata.com/gtis.shtml

Does S&P Comstock own esignal and GTIS?

Thanks


jtrader.

esignal have informed me of the following -

Interactive Data is the parent company that owns both eSignal and S&P Comstock. There is also a direct relationship with GTIS FOREX.

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We have just recently purchased the Comstock feed and it is possible that we will be able to offer you both the Comstock and GTIS feed in the future. To do this will have to reconfigure the servers and test the data to make sure that we can receive and transmit the data correctly. This process may take some time and I cannot give you a specific date of when we will begin to start this reconfiguration or when it will be completed.

I will definitely recommend this to my Management team and the Developers

Click to expand...

Given that some members have indicated that the GTIS feed is garbage, by offering a choice of the Comstock datafeed and GTIS would be something of an improvement to us day traders.


jtrader.

If you subscribe to bloomberg data, for spot forex data - is the data intergrated/used by bloomberg - EBS spot forex data?

Many thanks.