NxCore User Review

NxCore User Review

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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