The wall is coming down. You can now be plugged into Wall Street faster than ever.

Nasdaq has announced today it will be providing instantaneous stock quotes and other info for free to several news outlets.

Previously, you could only get 15- to 20-minute delayed price data from the major U.S. equity exchanges. A large part of these exchanges' revenue comes from charging institutional clients and online brokerage large subscription fees for more updated information.

The new deal Nasdaq is cutting will give Google Finance, CNBC, Xignite and WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal) completely live stock information.

The services will be offered for free during the month of June, but will require the news sources to incur a $150,000 fee ($100,000 for Nasdaq info, and $50,000 for NYSE and Amex) for the continued live information. It's up to those sources to decide if they want to charge their readers.

Not to be outdone, according to a CNN Money/ Dow Jones Newswire article, Yahoo stock quotes went totally live last week as well:

BATS last week launched real-time price quotes via Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), though it said it had never charged for data as part of its pitch to undercut trading costs on established exchanges. BATS has lifted its share of U.S. equities trading above 10% and is applying for regulated exchange status, with plans to launch a European platform later this year.

"We believed that market data - including full depth of book, not just last quotes - should be free to investors," said
Randy Williams, a BATS spokesman.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet to make a public statement or official ruling on this new practice. But they're not usually the most 'with-it' bureaucratic organization in the world.

I can only see this as a plus for all the independent traders on a budget out there. Needless to say, up to the second live information is the way to go. Let's hope that the news sources will keep it free and bite the bullet on the fees after June in hopes of keeping an audience.

Now us non-/semi- professionals won't be looking at old stock data for what feels like eons after a major announcement comes out.

Let us know in the comments section how this will effect how you trade or look up stock information.

Dow Jones News Wires / CNN Money: Nasdaq Offers Free Real-Times Stock Price Data, June 2, 2008

Courtesy of Reader's Digest

Have you ever noticed that anybody going slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

George Carlin

How many people here have telekinetic powers? Raise my hand

Emo Philips

I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens

Woody Allen

When I was a little kid, we had a quicksand box. I was an only child.......eventually

Steven Wright

First the doctor told me the good news: I was going to have a disease named after me.

Steve Martin

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman "Where's the self-help section?" She said
if she told me, it would defeat the purpose

Brian Kiley

About a month ago, I got a cactus. And a week later, it died. I got really depressed because I was like, Damn, I am less nuturing than a desert.

Demetri Martin

The problem is God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time

Robin Williams

Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.

Jason Love

More trading quotes from TradingQuotes

When the facts change, I change my mind.

John Maynard Keynes

If you can't take a small loss, sooner or later you will take the mother of all losses.

Ed Seykota

Rule number one of investing is never lose money. Rule number two is never forget rule number one.

Warren Buffet

Probably my best technique is not picking up the phone to close out a winning trade.
(this is my most important trading rule)
Jerry Parker, another Turtle

Wanting to make money in the markets without accepting there will be losses is like waiting to breathe but only wishing to exhale.

Ed Seykota

A trading philosophy is something that cannot just be transferred from one person to another; it’s something that you have to acquire yourself through time and effort.

Richard Driehaus

This is an old one that has been passed around but time for a comeback

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - Abraham Lincoln

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." - Jack E. Leonard

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." - Robert Redford

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.

Bill Gates

as compiled by Trading Quotes

True dat...

Virtually every successful trader I know ultimately ended up with a trading style suited to his personality.

Randy McKay

Don't do anything until you know what you are doing.

Jimmy Rogers

As investors, we deceive ourselves a thousand different ways, both small and large. We attribute gains to acumen when they are the product of luck, and attribute losses to ill fortune when they are often the product of stupidity or inattention.

Leon Levy

To avoid whipsaw losses, stop trading.

Ed Seykota

Too many people are apt to redeem their profits too quickly. In a huge bull market they wind up with piddling profits, only to watch their former holdings soar. That usually prompts them into making mistakes later when, believing that the market owes them some money, they buy at the wrong time at much higher levels.

Martin Zweig

In my early days, I didn't have the staying power - psychologically, emotionally, and, most importantly, financially.

Jimmy Rogers

Investors may be quite willing to take the risk of being wrong in the company of others, while being much more reluctant to take the risk of being right alone.

John Maynard Keynes