I'm looking for online sources of market data and investment content
to use within our online brokerage site. We are currently using CBS
Marketwatch content and are pleased both with the quality of the
content and with the form in which it is delivered. However, the cost
is getting out of control so we are forced to shop.

It is most important to us that the data/services are provided to us
in a manner such that we remain in complete control of the user
interface. That is, we are looking for XML feeds or web services, not
finished web pages to which we would have to link.

The types of data/services which are most important to us are:

- delayed quotes by ticker symbol (used for one-at-a-time quotes; also
used to populate the user's Watch List.)
- news articles by ticker symbol (various wire services)
- historical market data (which we would use to populate our own model
portfolio application)

Other data/services that we would like to find (but are of secondary
importance) includes:

- Index charts (today's djia and nasdaq)
- Interactive charting
- General market news and commentary

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Request for Question Clarification by lot-ga on 30 Oct 2002 08:47 PST

Hello,
can you give researchers a sense of the 'cost is getting out of
control' so we don't recommend solutions which are more expensive or
offer you no cost benefit?
kind regards
lot-ga

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Clarification of Question by rickatcuna-ga on 30 Oct 2002 09:49 PST

Different vendors charge for this sort of thing in different manners,
so it may be hard for you to make comparisons, but I'll give you as
much info as I can. We are currently paying over $30,000 per month. We
need to get our costs down to under $10,000 per month. Keep in mind
that this cost is for ALL services that we get, which includes delayed
quotes, a watch list, dow charts, interactive charting, news by ticker
symbol, a "Market Snapshot" column, and company profile reports. We
pay on a "per-entitled-user" basis, whereas many vendors charge by
actual usage. To give you a general idea of our overall usage, about
7,000 people log in to our brokerage site on an average month. Many
come more than once, accounting for about 40,000 visits. Most -- but
not all -- of the content in question is associated with the part of
our site where folks log in. However, many services are available in
non-logged-in parts of the site as well. To our entire site (which
encompasses more than just the brokerage part) we get almost a half
million visits in a month.

Is that enough information, or do you need more?

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Clarification of Question by rickatcuna-ga on 30 Oct 2002 10:57 PST

Some further data that might be helpful:

We served up 26,000 delayed quotes last month.
News-by-ticker was used about 11,000 times.
Interactive charting was used about 7,000 times.
People modified their watchlist 6,000 times.

Hello Rick,

I am anticipating that I could not give a fully qualified answer, as
the cost involved in these types of services is usually catered to the
indivual. Digging up such prices would require us to have the most
minute details of your business requirements, and then speaking to a
representative of companies that provide these services. In turn they
would require further details that we may not have on hand.

I know of one that you may want to look into though:

Reuters
Has XML feeds, and other modern technologies that you could implement.
Worth a look.
http://about.reuters.com/products/internetfinanceplatform/index.asp


Good Luck with your search and question -

SgtCory

Thanks for your response.

I'm not looking for "THE" answer -- just reasonable alternatives to
explore. Reuters is certainly one. Thanks.