Measuring quote spam vs real price updates on your feed
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2026 3:47 pm
Two brokers can show EURUSD ticking at very different rates. One prints 40 updates a minute at the London open, another prints 200. Busier doesn't mean better. Some feeds repeat the same bid/ask or flicker by 0.1 pip back and forth with no real change in market price.
Why it matters for scalpers:
- Tick-based indicators (tick volume, tick charts, speed meters) behave differently on a "noisy" feed.
- EAs that trigger on every tick do more work and can enter on flicker.
- Spread readings averaged per tick get skewed by bursts of duplicate quotes.
A quick way to measure it in MT5: log every tick (time, bid, ask) for 10 minutes around 08:00 UK. Then count:
1. Total ticks.
2. Ticks where bid and ask are both unchanged from the previous tick.
3. Ticks that reverse the previous tick by 0.1–0.2 pips and come back within 1 second.
If more than a third fall into 2 or 3, your tick count is inflated. Compare with a second broker over the same 10 minutes.
Nothing wrong with a quiet feed if it is accurate. Has anyone logged this across a few feeds? Interested to know what a "normal" duplicate ratio looks like.
Why it matters for scalpers:
- Tick-based indicators (tick volume, tick charts, speed meters) behave differently on a "noisy" feed.
- EAs that trigger on every tick do more work and can enter on flicker.
- Spread readings averaged per tick get skewed by bursts of duplicate quotes.
A quick way to measure it in MT5: log every tick (time, bid, ask) for 10 minutes around 08:00 UK. Then count:
1. Total ticks.
2. Ticks where bid and ask are both unchanged from the previous tick.
3. Ticks that reverse the previous tick by 0.1–0.2 pips and come back within 1 second.
If more than a third fall into 2 or 3, your tick count is inflated. Compare with a second broker over the same 10 minutes.
Nothing wrong with a quiet feed if it is accurate. Has anyone logged this across a few feeds? Interested to know what a "normal" duplicate ratio looks like.