2. The terminal and your workspace

Free, Pro and how fresh your data is (UPGRADE, CONN)

Every number has an age (real-time, 15 minutes behind, daily or on release), and the help card's Data line and the clock mark on a quote tell you which.

  • 5 min
  • 3 questions
  • Lesson 7 of 9

Why you would care

How old is the number you are looking at? You see AAPL at 335.91 and call your broker. The real price is 337. On the free plan, that quote was 15 minutes old. Freshness is not a detail. A 15-minute-old price is fine for research and useless for trading. Know which one you have.

The idea from scratch

Data does not all move at the same speed:

Kind of dataHow often it really changesExample
Prices of stocks, options, FXMany times per second while markets tradea quote
Daily dataOnce per day, after the closea yield curve, a correlation
Released dataWhen a company or agency publishesearnings, inflation, holdings
Event dataWhenever something happensnews, filings, halts

"Fresh" means different things for each. A yield curve from last night is as fresh as it gets. A stock price from 15 minutes ago is stale for a trader.

A mutual fund's dated NAV remains current until the next trading session's NAV has had time to publish, up to 12 hours after that session closes.

The plans

  • Signed out

    you can use the app; many market functions work with delayed data.

  • Free account (an email and a password)

    adds sync across devices, chat, alerts by phone and email, and previews of some research datasets.

  • Pro (paid, with a 7-day free trial)

    real-time US prices, real-time news, and the full research datasets.

What Pro changes, in one table

Taken from the Data lines of the help cards:

DataFreePro
US stocks and ETFs (DES, QQ, GP, PF)15 minutes delayedReal-time
Stocks on other exchangesDelayedDelayed
CryptoReal-timeReal-time
US options (OMON, OSA), trade tape (TAS)15 minutes delayedReal-time
News (N, TOP, CN)12 hours delayedReal-time
Mergers (MA)7 days delayedAs announced
Filings, statements (FA, SEC, INS)As filedAs filed
Daily data (GC, CORR, VIX)DailyDaily

Some functions are Pro only (for example RISK, EXEC, EK, CALLS, JOBS, SRCH, FLOW). Others show a preview on Free, usually three rows per section, with the full table on Pro (for example KPIS, GUIDE, HIRE, APPS, CATL, SPLC, AWARDS, POWER). A locked row in a table means "the rest is on Pro". Several of these preview datasets (KPIS, GUIDE, HIRE, APPS, CATL, SPLC, AWARDS, POWER) arrived after the latest desktop and terminal release, 0.15.8: they are in the browser app now and come to the desktop and terminal apps with the next release.

Diagram: A number on screen leads to What kind?; What kind? leads to Your plan (price); Your plan leads to about 15 minutes behind, crypto live (Free); Your plan leads to real-time for US listings and crypto (Pro); What kind? leads to last close, one value per day (daily); What kind? leads to latest publication, until the next one (released).
Wide diagram: scroll sideways to see all of it.

See it in Gloom

Gloom screenshot: The top of a portfolio
The top of a portfolio. The AGE column says how old each quote is; a small clock before the age marks a delayed quote. Historical example.

How to read freshness on screen:

  1. AGE: how long ago this quote arrived. 4h means four hours: the market was closed.
  2. The clock mark (◷4h on AAPL): this quote comes from a delayed feed. No mark: not delayed, for example a quote from a connected broker.
  3. The help card's Data line (F1 on any pane): the plan rule for that function.
  4. Pane footers often say "as of" a date and time, or "15 minutes delayed".

UPGRADE and CONN

  • UPGRADE opens the Pro checkout (or the billing page during a trial). If you are signed out, it signs you up first.
  • CONN lists every connection the app keeps (its live price stream, its web requests) with a status, the last request and its speed. Open it when prices stop moving and you wonder whether it is the market or your connection.

Practice and recap

Try it3 tasks
  1. In the screenshot, which ticker shows a delayed quote? (AAPL, with the clock mark.)
  2. Using the table: on Free, how old is a news story when you first see it? (About 12 hours.)
  3. Open HELP GC and read its Data line. Does Pro make the yield curve faster? (No: daily close, published the next day, on both plans.)
Common mistakes4 mistakes
  • Assuming Pro makes everything real-time. Daily and released data are the same on both plans.
  • Trading off a delayed quote.
  • Thinking a frozen price is a bug. Check the session (OPEN or CLOSED) and CONN first.
  • Reading a three-row preview as the whole dataset.
Check yourself3 questions
  1. On the free plan, how far behind are US stock quotes? And crypto?
  2. What does the clock mark before an age mean?
  3. Name one function that is Pro only.
Answers
  1. About 15 minutes; crypto is real-time.
  2. That quote comes from a delayed feed.
  3. Any of RISK, EXEC, EK, CALLS, JOBS, SRCH, FLOW.
Words in this lesson7 words
fresh / stale
Recent enough for its purpose / too old for it.
real-time
Shown as it happens.
delayed
Shown a fixed time after it happened.
daily data
One value per day, usually after the close.
on release
Updated when a company or agency publishes.
preview
The first rows of a Pro dataset, shown on Free.
Pro
The paid plan: real-time US prices and news, full datasets.

Educational material about reading market data, not investment advice.