Be careful what you ask for. You might get it.
Major web portals like Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO) have been aggitating to get the exchanges to part with realtime data for their financial consumer surfers. The retail crowd has lived with delayed quotes for years. Real-time data usually runs about $15 a month if bought through on of the portals or financial sites like MarketWatch.
So, the NYSE (NYX) has told the SEC that it will offer the quotes for $100,000 a month per website. Dow Jones (DJ) said that there may not even be enough demand among its visitors to justify the cost.
If the Nasdaq follows suit, and the pricing model, websites could be paying close to $2.5 million each for the data.
And, that, in all likelihood, is a great deal for the exchanges. It is a very poor deal for the listed companies who want as many investors as possible to have access to the price data about their shares. Perhaps the exchange fees they pay go for something else.
Never give a sucker an even break. And, never wise up a chump.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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