Prop Quote Freshness: Measure Source Age and Clock Assumptions
A price can arrive recently while describing an older market event. Preserve source time, receive time and the local decision time before calling a quote fresh. The comparison also needs a defined clock relationship and precision.
Explore this site’s existing research resource
Save three timestamps with their meanings
Record when the source says the event occurred, when your system received it and when the price was considered. An API field named time is not enough without its unit and definition. A second-based value should not be compared directly with a millisecond integer.
For a Singapore diary, keep the original full instant beside the UTC+8 display. A local date change does not refresh the quote. If source and receiver clocks have uncertain offsets, record that uncertainty rather than treating the subtraction as exact network latency.
Calculate a fictional freshness record
Assume synchronised clocks for this teaching example. Source time is 08:00:00 UTC, receipt 08:00:02 and decision 08:00:07. Source age at decision is 7 seconds, while the observed source-to-receipt interval is 2 seconds. The price has also spent 5 seconds at the receiver.
With a chosen research freshness threshold of 3 seconds, the record is stale at the decision. That threshold is an example criterion, not a HashHedge rule or a universal trading standard. Missing source time would leave age unknown instead of zero.
| Record | UTC time | Derived interval |
|---|---|---|
| Source event | 08:00:00 | Original market timestamp |
| Receipt | 08:00:02 | 2 seconds after source |
| Decision | 08:00:07 | Source age 7 seconds |
| Research threshold | 3 seconds | Stale in this example; not a provider rule |
Use actual account evidence for the result
The related stale-quote resource remains the companion on this site. A fresh quote still does not establish available size, execution price or account valuation. Review the actual product conditions and preserve confirmed fills separately.
The optional sponsored HashHedge link offers current programme information. No feed is connected, latency measured or order placed here. The worksheet exposes a timing assumption without promising an execution advantage or successful evaluation.
Sources and rule dates
- RFC3339: explicit timestamp representation
Checked 2026-10-23. Selected published description only. Worked numbers and event records are fictional; no actual provider account, search result, live price, eligibility or payment is established. - HashHedge: challenge types
Checked 2026-10-23. Selected published description only. Worked numbers and event records are fictional; no actual provider account, search result, live price, eligibility or payment is established. - HashHedge: terms and conditions
Checked 2026-10-23. Selected published description only. Worked numbers and event records are fictional; no actual provider account, search result, live price, eligibility or payment is established.