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Dear TJ & Group,
I began receving satellite futures data in 1984 from a predecessor of BMI, namely,
Market Information. Market Information was later acquired and became the "MI" of
BMI. BMI was acquired several years ago by DBC, but DBC kept the name of BMI. I
have used BMI in its various corporate configurations (MI, BMI, DBC) virtually
continuously up through 12/31/1999, when I quit. Suffice it to say that I found
both the customer service and the data of MI and the original BMI exemplary. My
experience, however, is that after DBC acquired BMI, the customer service dropped
appreciably. I really don't have any way to comment on the lessening of the quality
of the data over time, although my subjective impression is that it, too, has
suffered.
Let me say for reference that up until a month or two ago, I have only followed
several indeces (INDU, NDX, and TICK) and several futures (SP, DJ, and US) ---
that's all. In the past few months, I have added NDX, ND, and (with Quote.com but
not BMI) a couple of stocks, such as MSFT and AMZN.
Some subjective impressions:
1. In 1996, I began listening to Jeff Jacobsen call the S&P market over his Listen
Only Squawkbox. Among other things, that allowed me to monitor the timeliness of
BMI's SP data. My expereince since then is that the BMI S&P data is hardly ever
more than 2-4 seconds late, except for rare occasions. Those occasions do occur and
are almost always (i) at the open, (ii) at the close, or (iii) immediately after
some outside event, such as a Greenspan announcement. At those times, I have timed
the lag between the call of the Squawkbox and when the BMI data catches up, and that
lag has been as long as several minutes --- IF a lag begins, it often exceeds one
minute. For example, I almost always check the lag if the S&P market closes during
"fast market conditions" by measuring the time interval between when I hear the
closing bell over the Squawkbox and when my computer indicates (as determined by
BMI's signals) that it is now 15 minutes after the hour. In those relatively rare
conditions, the lag is usually over a minute and often several minutes. God help me
if I wanted to exit the S&P market during a volatile close and relied on my computer
and BMI signals to tell me when to do so.
2. Several months ago, I began receiving simultaneous realtime data from
Quote.com. I was astonished that under virtually every condition that I observed,
the Quote.com datafeed was at least 2-4 seconds faster (and sometimes much faster)
than the BMI datafeed. Furthermore, the Quote.com datafeed routinely showed ticks
that the BMI datafeed did not.
For the foregoing reasons, as well as the fact that BMI announced that it was
raising my data fee 45%, and furthermore doing so retroactively, I am no longer a
customer of BMI. I had 15 good years with them (in their various configurations)
and have no regrets about having used their services. I've just found something
else that I believe that I prefer.
Sincerely,
Richard
tradejacker@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> as compared to what???
>
> i only get a several second delay at worst on bmi sat......sometimes i wonder
> if i'm getting a different service than those who report slow bmi performance
> :))
>
> i run my comparsions directly to the pit while on the phone with my floor
> broker (quoting bid / ask) during all market conditions....open, close,
> fast markets, it doesn't matter, i only get a several sec delay at WORST!!!
> and during the day, i monitor performance with los. now i'm talkng about
> only cme index futures; spoos, nasducks, etc.....
>
> i admit that bmi IS worthless for stocks and options, but for futures, it
> works for me. i can live with a small sec delay, but dropped connections
> ala quote.com are intolerable. i'd like to see some tick counts comparing
> quote.com and bmi on the spoos and e-mini spoos!!!!!
>
> and yer right that bmi/dbc are pushing folks to e-signal....i'd bet that
> they would like to scrap all that sat transmission infrastructure in a hearbeat,
> but i think that it would be a HUGE mistake!!!! the internet is NOT stable
> enough for massive data transmission.
>
> TJ
>
> a 6 yr bmi subscriber
>
> At Wed, 12 Jan 2000 07:23:12 -0800 (PST), Roger Dalton <rogerdalton@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >I have been a BMI satellite subscriber for the past 4
> >years and have definitely noticed a performance
> >difference in the past few months. I talked to a BMI
> >tech yesterday and I was very surprised to hear what
> >he had to say.
> >
> >He said that this was a known problem (2 min delays)
> >and that it was a bandwidth problem, that didn't exist
> >a couple of years ago. He also said that they had no
> >intention of fixing the problem. I could tell that he
> >was pushing the Esignal (internet feed) side of their
> >company. Anyway, I was very pleased that I got an
> >honest answer. I have been speaking with DTN about
> >using their satellite service.
> >
> >Does anyone use DTN after having used BMI or using
> >both concurrently. I would love to hear about the
> >differences in quoting speed.
> >
> >Thank you.
> >
> >Roger
> >
>
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