I tried to use Alpaca market data Ask price and Sell price but I check the UTC Data it is 30 min difference from the actual one.
I tried to do transaction on Market price but the order triggered with totally different price rather than the market price.
Any suggestions why it is a hug difference?
@victor_fci The “Unlimited Plan” market data which Alpaca offers is the exact same data provided by most brokers and 3rd party data suppliers. It is sourced from the two Securities Information Processors (SIPs) which combined provide trade and National Best Bid Offer (NBBO) quotes for 100% of exchange traded equities. (see here for more info). Alpaca uses direct feeds to retransmit this this data which typically adds ~20ms latency due to processing time. Can there be an occasional missed quote or trade? Certainly, but overall Alpaca data is very accurate and timely.
If one is using the Free Plan that data is just a sub-set of the full consolidated market data. It is just those trades and quotes which were transacted on the IEX Exchange and represents only about 2% of all trades. If one is using the Free data it can appear to be ‘delayed’ simply because one isn’t seeing all trades and quotes.
Could you explain a little more what is meant by "I check the UTC Data it is 30 min difference from the actual one.".
Also, could you explain what you did when you say “I tried to do transaction on Market price but the order triggered with totally different price rather than the market price.” If this is referring to the ‘last price’ that is simply, as the name implies, the price of the last trade. It happened in the past and bears no relationship to the price one’s order would fill at now. A much better guestimate of an orders fill price is the bid and ask prices. Sell orders generally fill at the bid price and buy orders fill at the ask price.
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