What our customers are saying:
Independent, unsolicited user review on October 28, 2006
This is a super-premium feed. It has some extraordinary features.
NxCore is a full broadcast internet feed. You get every instrument of
every exchange you're permissioned for. You get every single tick for every
instrument, delivered in real-time. Data compression is unparalleled. I get all
instruments on NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ, CME, CBOT. I get trades only (I don't use
bid-ask data). During regular market hours, the bandwidth requirement is about
30-40 kbps. If bid-ask is wanted as well, the bandwidth requirement is
multiplied by a factor of about 10. The data server is designed to run all the
time, in the background. (However, you can turn your computer off. When you
turn it on again, it will “catch up” almost immediately). It's fairly
invisible, unless you want to interact with it. Normally, it just takes care of
itself. Processing all of those ticks during RTH takes about 1% of processor
time on my creaky Athlon 64 3200+. (I'm waiting for the quad-core chips to
upgrade).
NxCore is indestructible. If there's any disruption for any reason (power
failure, ISP failure, whatever), NxCore will backfill automatically when the
situation is corrected. And it'll do it very quickly. During my trial period, I
tried every kind of abuse I could think of, including a product update during
RTH, intentional destruction of files, etc. NxCore corrected every
situation.
The datafeed includes some very interesting things. Every trade is accompanied
by a statistical analysis that results in a decision to use or filter that
tick. Thus, you can scrub the ticks or not (your choice). If you think you can
use the statistical data more effectively, you’re given all of the
components to use as you wish. The analysis is a server-side process.
Symbols are handled very intelligently. At the start of every calendar day
(shortly after midnight Eastern), there’s a "symbol spin" that
enumerates every symbol of every exchange you're entitled to that was
encountered the previous trading day. You can use this to check the validity of
the symbols you're following. You also have the ability to build your data
structures and embed indexes into NxCore, which allows you to access the
appropriate entry when ticks occur with no overhead. In addition, every
exchange sends Change notices before 0530 Eastern, so that name changes, new
issues, etc. are also iterated before RTH. This can be used to eliminate ugly
surprises that may have been missed in trying to keep up with a large universe
of instruments.
Each trading day is packaged as a "tape" file. You can set up NxCore
to automatically archive a copy of each tape wherever you like. I keep a large
USB drive for tape archive backup.
NxCore comes with useful diagnostic tools and an online chat function to tech
support. You'll end up connected to Eric Hunsader, the developer himself and a
guy who's been around the block in trading software. There isn't any problem he
can't solve fairly immediately. In addition, there's a slick tool known simply
as the "Viewer." You can essentially set up break points when viewing
tapes for situations you're interested in and see the contents of the various
data structures. This is very useful for getting fairly immediate gratification
for answers to questions you may have about how things are done in the
datafeed.
There may be differences depending on subscription; I always have access to the
last month's worth of data on the server. I tried deleting a tape file from a
couple of weeks ago; it was replaced by the server automatically.
Historical tapes are available for purchase. I got a running start by buying 4
months of tapes, got the previous month on the server, and have been running
for 2 months. Thus, I currently have 7 months of absolutely pristine tick data
for the exchanges I'm interested in following. I believe the historical data
available goes back about 2 1/2 years.
When you get the free trial (which requires signing an NDA), you get full
disclosure and all of the software. The API is very logical, very
straightforward, very simple and documented well. There are also excellent
examples. The API is written in 'C'; there’s a single #include file.
There’s a C++ wrapper, a CSharp wrapper and a Delphi wrapper. It can be
easily accessed from VB. The free trial will run in real-time. If you're a
quick learner, you can write a fully functioning interface while the trial is
active. If you're a little slower, you can still use the historical tapes
you'll end up with. Thus, you can REALLY check out the product without sending
a3 dime to DTN.
The processing of historical tapes and the real-time feed is identical. One
code set will do it all. For my application, the interface is just a few pages
of C++ code.
You can have multiple applications that access NxCore simultaneously. Thus, if
you're running multiple copies of NSDT, each can access NxCore. They won't
interfere with one another. Also, you won't open up separate internet
connections. You already have the whole feed in the real-time buffers. NxCore
will give you as many independent accesses as you require. You can also access
historical tapes at the same time.
I sort of knew about this feed a year and a half ago. When Quote.com was
acquired by Interactive Data, I knew it was time to look for a serious
alternative. When I saw the demo in action, I was hooked.
This feed is HIGHLY recommended. There's nothing else like it. (I make that
statement with the historical perspective of having used the old Universal
Market Data Server and M3 with Comstock, E-Signal with its ActiveX API,
Quote.com with its API).
Allan Kaminsky
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