Quotes4U : Data Offer

[airedale]

I have just received an email from Keith Nielsen at the "Inside Trader" tip sheet touting data--all you will ever want- for a once only payment of AU$297+gst and no ongoing charges. Has anyone tried this deal. More info at www.datafeed.com.au
Discl: not using it myself.

Airedale how long does he guarantee he is going to be in business.

[thekiwi]

quote:Originally posted by airedale

I have just received an email from Keith Nielsen at the "Inside Trader" tip sheet touting data--all you will ever want- for a once only payment of AU$297+gst and no ongoing charges. Has anyone tried this deal. More info at www.datafeed.com.au
Discl: not using it myself.


Be careful, you get what you pay for:

a message I received from Richard Dale of NOrgate:


quote:
Datafeed.com.au resell a Yahoo downloader (actually it's Quotes4U by an American firm USEC, which incidentally is sold at a cheaper price by USEC).

Plenty of issues with Yahoo data including:
1. No delisted history - any system testing you do based on Yahoo data is subject to population bias. ie you can only test on the stocks that are currently listed.
2. Significant inaccuracies for ASX data (eg. Yahoo's data is rounded to the nearest cent. Of the over 14000 ASX traded securities/instruments, 8000 of them are currently trading below 20c (ie they move in 0.5 and 0.1c increments. Only pricing in cents can introduce a HUGE problem - eg. a 2.6c shown as 3c represents a 15% error)
3. Normal dividends are adjusted by subtracting all historical data by the dividend amount. The official ASX line is that there are no adjustments for standard dividends. By diluting it the way they do, your technical analysis no longer shows a correct % return, nor does it show a critical technical levels such as support and resistance.
4. No sector information - critical if you want to perform sector-based analysis.
5. Significant number of missing stock splits and other capital adjustments.
6. There is no guarantee that Yahoo will continue to supply data, especially to automated download programs.

So, whilst the Yahoo data is free to obtain from the Yahoo site, you need to determine what you really need from the data. If you're every likely to want to view historical charts (eg for system development / backtesting / historical interest) then the old adage "you get what you pay for" certainly applies here.

The best analogy I can use for data feeds is they are like a game of Chinese Whispers. http://www.chinesewhispers.com/chinesewhispers.php

In the case of programs that extract data from Yahoo, the exchange sends data to Reuters. Reuters interpret the data, put it into their databases, then take an extract of the data and send it to Yahoo. Yahoo interprets the data, puts it into their database, then extracts it onto the Yahoo Finance web site. Then the downloading program obtains data from the Yahoo site, interprets it, and puts it onto the user's PC. If at any step of the above process, the interpretation is slightly incorrect then you have a discrepancy between actual events on the market and data you receive. This is clearly the case with the Quotes4U product as resold by datafeed.com.au.

As an ASX data vendor, Norgate Investor Services have made a commercial decision to buy the data directly from the ASX and obtain fully legal redistribution rights to avoid all of the problems above. The ASX charge handsomely for the privilege though, and this is why you see differences in the retail price of such products compared to the "buy data for life for one fixed fee".

Best regards,
Richard Dale.
Norgate Investor Services
- Premium quality Stock, Futures and Foreign Exchange Data for
markets in Australia, Asia, Europe, UK & USA -
www.premiumdata.net

[airedale]

Thanks for that,Enigma, and Kiwi, sounds like there could be too many fish hooks.