Google's Free Real Time Nasdaq Data Has Limited Value

Ever since Google’s (GOOG) breathless announcement more than a year ago that they were going to offer real time stock quotes to everyone, I’ve been waiting to see if they would make good on their promise

Well, it took much longer than they or anyone else thought but you can now get “real time” data for Nasdaq traded securities on the internet for free.

I put real time in quotes because the data is refreshed every second and only the trades that cross on the Nasdaq platform will be transmitted. So trades that take place on the NYSE, AMEX and other ECNs are not included. This is a key factor and will become more so as competing platforms continue to attract trades away from traditional exchanges. Just be aware that you are not getting the complete picture.

And that means that no matter how interesting this announcement is, no serious trader is going to cancel their data subscription just yet. But for everyone else, it is a nice little bonus to be able to have just this much more accurate stock prices.

I’m curious but haven’t found anything regarding how exactly this works or what sort of deal was struck. Selling real time data was and is the bread and butter of traditional trading platforms such as NYSE and NASDAQ. Obviously the rules have changed.

For now the data will only appear in the top search engine result when you type in a stock symbol, otherwise known as the OneBox:

But soon the data stream will be diverted to flow into the large charts. And although Google spearheaded this initiative, the NASDAQ free real-time data partnership includes Dow Jones & Co. affiliate sites such as CNBC, WSJ, MarketWatch and Barron’s. So keep an eye out for it on those sites as well.

As if it needs to be said: I would strongly recommend against using this data service to actually place trades intra-day. Especially in fast moving market conditions. But if you are swing trading or position trading and don’t particularly care about the sort of fill you get, I suppose it can be a good “backup” quote provider or sorts.