do you use either your prosperity or natonal online "top 20" prices/volumes/trades in the first hour or so of trading so as to see the big picture of the market or to spot the early runners so as to jump on board?? if you do, then you would expect the prices,trades and volumes to be accurate because they tell you these are "live" prices, even state under the Top 20 lists "snapshot taken at (time) (date) ".
well they certainly are not accurate, especially in the first hour or so of trading. on average all the top 20's information is slow by some 12 minutes in that initial period. yes, that's 12 minutes away from "live" prices. a lot can happen in those 12 minutes as we know. this inaccuracy occures "every" day, every day that is that I have checked and that is quite a number. sometimes slow over 30 minutes, hard to believe but true. sometimes "only" slow by 5 minutes max. the only way you can know for sure is to compare to a more reliable source.
where it states under the top 20's the time the snapshot was taken -- do not believe it -- this is the time you requested the information, so it appears to be "live" prices etc when you do read the time that is stated.
today the top 20's were slow by--
information "live" at the asx at 10:10:47 was not accurate on the top 20's until 10:22:30 - 11:43 slow. at 10:24:41 not till 10:44:55 - 20:14 slow. at 10:45:15 not till 10:59:35 - 14:20 slow. at 10:58:36 not till 11:14:30 - 15:54 slow. checked again at 11:35, was at last displaying true "live" prices/vol/trades.
when you speak with these online brokers to point out this problem, you get "no, our top 20's are live, it's a direct feed from the asx you know. also look at the time the snapshot was taken, that proves the accuracy,"
then get them to bring up their top 20 and compare to their own quote prices/vol/trades and they just have to admit how dam slow their top 20 is, carn't argue with the proof in front of them.
then the old "we will get that fixed as soon as possible as it's not good for us to be displaying inaccurate information to our clients"
and surprise-surprise, after many months it still is'nt fixed. if it can not be fixed, if it just tooooo hard for the people responsible to in fact correct the problem, then at the very very least the "snapshot taken time " under the snapshot should state the truthful time the snapshot was taken and not the log in time as it does now.
I have also checked sanford's top 20's, there is a stated 20 minute delay for all information except for those who are paid members. therefor I have only been able to check their accuracy a couple of times over the phone, happy to say they have been accurate when at the same time the other brokers are inaccurate.
are there any other brokers that display the "top 20's"? any feedback would be appreciated, also any good sites etc for over-all market view and for the picking out of early movers etc. happy trading.
