Squawk, calendar, social feed: three clocks for the same headline
Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2026 8:31 am
Squawk, calendar, social feed: three clocks for the same headline
A headline appears. How fast does it reach the trader? It depends on the channel.
The fastest is the direct feed that professional desks use, delivering the number within milliseconds of release. Next come audio squawk services, where a human reads out the figure, adding a second or two. Then come news aggregators, with a delay of several seconds. Calendars that update automatically often lag by ten seconds or more. Social media varies from fast to slow to wrong.
By the time the headline reaches a typical retail trader, algorithms have already moved the price. The information is old before it arrives.
This is why reacting to the number on a calendar is a poor edge. The move has been made. What remains is the second phase, where the market digests the information, and that stage is slower and better suited to human decisions.
Different channels also differ in accuracy. A fast feed that misreads a figure creates a spike that reverses once the correct number appears. A calendar that shows the final number may avoid that.
Knowing the delay of each source in use helps to decide what role it can play. For timing, the calendar is a useful alarm clock. For reaction, it is too slow.
One more channel worth knowing is the price itself. The tick rate and the spread respond to the release before any text arrives on the trader's screen. A sudden jump in ticks and a spreading quote are, in effect, the fastest news feed available to retail, and watching them develops a feel for the moment a number has hit. That feel is free and takes only practice to build.
Which source of news is in use, and has its delay compared with the price move ever been measured?
A headline appears. How fast does it reach the trader? It depends on the channel.
The fastest is the direct feed that professional desks use, delivering the number within milliseconds of release. Next come audio squawk services, where a human reads out the figure, adding a second or two. Then come news aggregators, with a delay of several seconds. Calendars that update automatically often lag by ten seconds or more. Social media varies from fast to slow to wrong.
By the time the headline reaches a typical retail trader, algorithms have already moved the price. The information is old before it arrives.
This is why reacting to the number on a calendar is a poor edge. The move has been made. What remains is the second phase, where the market digests the information, and that stage is slower and better suited to human decisions.
Different channels also differ in accuracy. A fast feed that misreads a figure creates a spike that reverses once the correct number appears. A calendar that shows the final number may avoid that.
Knowing the delay of each source in use helps to decide what role it can play. For timing, the calendar is a useful alarm clock. For reaction, it is too slow.
One more channel worth knowing is the price itself. The tick rate and the spread respond to the release before any text arrives on the trader's screen. A sudden jump in ticks and a spreading quote are, in effect, the fastest news feed available to retail, and watching them develops a feel for the moment a number has hit. That feel is free and takes only practice to build.
Which source of news is in use, and has its delay compared with the price move ever been measured?