Stock Trading and Other Things

how am i supposed to buy stocks when the stock ticker has a 20 minute lag?

i never bought stocks before, so im just wondering. on yahoo finance and bloomsberg, the stock ticker chart has a 20 minute lag. how are you suppose to know the real time price?

Public Comments

1. you have to pay for real time updates.

2. You can always tell your broker to buy at market - whatever the stock is selling for is what you will buy it for. Alternately, you can place a limit order which says buy Stock A at any price up to $X

3. Yahoo and Bloomsberg ticker is for information and not for trading.
Neither company can by law provide real time quotes

No investor and/or trader would should use sources other than those of a registered broker/dealer for accurate and current stock information since they are the only ones that can provide real time information.

Most knowledgeable investors/traders use the platforms provided by their brokerage firm and all platforms provide real time quotes.
When entering an order, it's always advisable to verify the price that is being used on the order with that of the current market.



4. You don't. And your order is not necessarily instantly executed anyway.

5. The Old Guy is right

You don't trade/invest with Yahoo or Bloomsberg nor can you since they are not broker/dealers therefore why would you use the quotes/prices you see there.