Liquidity and Market Data

Understand the topic

Market data tells a platform what has been quoted or traded, while liquidity describes the conditions under which a transaction may be executed. They are connected, but a healthy data connection does not establish that a displayed price is executable for every account and quantity. This collection helps broker operations, dealing and integration teams examine those boundaries. It starts with the visible price ladder and follows the information through aggregation, freshness checks, state reconstruction and instrument mapping.

Depth of market is a useful first reference because a ladder can look similar across very different market structures. An exchange order book, an OTC provider’s quoted sizes and a terminal’s calculated price levels do not represent the same evidence. The depth and aggregation pages explain what must be known before quantities are combined or compared. The quote-comparison worksheet then brings commercial terms into the same review: a narrow spread cannot be evaluated fairly without quantity, commissions, minimum charges and the disclosed execution model.

Execution-policy evidence also deserves its own place. The last-look checklist asks for the relevant policy, timestamps and reason information without assuming that any rejection is improper or that a technology connection guarantees firm pricing. It uses wholesale FX guidance within its stated scope. A supplier’s statement, a configured route and an observed execution record answer different questions. Procurement teams should retain all three where relevant and avoid turning one into a claim that every transaction will behave identically.

The data-quality references focus on failures that are easy to miss in a demonstration. A session can remain connected while one symbol stops updating. A sequence of incremental changes can produce a plausible but incorrect order book after a gap. A reused ticker can hide different contract sizes or quote currencies. Each page gives a small original example or test record that makes the failure visible. The goal is to help a reviewer specify evidence and acceptance criteria before relying on a feed for execution, risk checks or customer reporting.

The final references connect price precision to contract meaning. Tick size controls valid price increments; displayed decimals alone do not establish that grid. A complete CFD specification also includes quantity units, margin treatment, financing and sessions. These details belong in versioned configuration and migration records, not only in a screenshot of the terminal. The examples are synthetic, and the cited platform documentation is labelled as platform-specific. They do not establish an FxTrusts integration, provider entitlement, execution guarantee or right to redistribute data. Use the relevant commercial and technical owners for current service scope, then apply these worksheets to the actual instruments, contracts and environments being reviewed.