U.S. market data is not one feed from one venue. Public quotes and trades move through market structure layers before they reach an application. The practical question is whether you need a consolidated market view, exchange-specific depth, or an API that keeps the source clear without forcing every developer to work directly with exchange feeds.
This guide explains SIPs, OPRA, CTA, UTP, direct exchange feeds, and why stocks and options have different data-source paths.
Quick answer
A securities information processor, or SIP, consolidates trade and quote information from multiple venues. OPRA is the SIP layer for U.S. exchange-listed options. For U.S. equities, the CTA and UTP plans cover consolidated stock-market trade and quote dissemination across listing tapes. Direct feeds are exchange-specific feeds sold by individual venues and can include venue-level details that are not the same thing as a consolidated market view.
CuteMarkets exposes normalized Stocks API and Options API products while keeping enough source context visible to tell whether a value is stock data, option data, quote data, trade data, aggregate bars, or a derived snapshot.
SIP versus direct feed
| Feed type | What it is | Strength | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consolidated SIP data | Market-wide quote and trade data processed under a national market system plan. | Good default for broad market context, NBBO-style workflows, tape review, and investor-facing state. | It is consolidated, not exchange-private depth. |
| Direct exchange feed | Data from a specific exchange or venue. | Useful for ultra-low-latency systems, venue-specific order-book work, and exchange-by-exchange diagnostics. | It is not automatically a full-market view. |
| Normalized API | API layer that exposes source data through stable endpoints, schemas, auth, pagination, and plan rules. | Easier to integrate, monitor, backfill, and combine with application logic. | Source, entitlement, freshness, and field semantics still need to be visible. |
For most applications, "SIP or direct feed" is not the first question. Start with the decision the application is trying to make. A backtest, watchlist, scanner, and execution pre-check can all need different objects from the same source family.
Stocks and options differ
Stocks and options are separate market-data products. A stock quote describes the underlying equity market. An option quote describes a listed contract market. They can update at different times, have different spreads, and be governed by different source and entitlement rules.
For stocks, consolidated U.S. equity data is organized through equity market-data plans such as CTA and UTP. For options, OPRA disseminates consolidated last-sale and quotation information from approved options exchanges. A screen that displays AAPL stock quotes next to AAPL option quotes is combining two different market-data layers.
What to log
Any production market-data workflow that affects a user-visible result needs source and freshness logs:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Product | Stocks API versus Options API entitlement and source context. |
| Endpoint | Quotes, trades, aggregates, snapshots, contracts, or reference. |
| Timestamp window | Reproducibility for pulls and backfills. |
| Row timestamps | The data row can be older than the request. |
| Freshness | Live, delayed, or historical. |
| Request id | Support and audit trail for failed or surprising responses. |
| Plan | Explains quote access, stream access, delay, and lookback behavior. |
Plan checklist
Before choosing a data source, answer:
- Does the product need stocks, options, or both?
- Does the workflow need quotes, trades, bars, snapshots, or reference records?
- Does it need live data or is delayed data acceptable?
- Does the UI display data, redistribute data, run non-display calculations, or support internal research?
- Are endpoint semantics documented clearly enough that developers know whether a value is a bid, ask, midpoint, last sale, bar close, or model output?
- Can the same request be replayed later with the same timestamp bounds and plan assumptions?