The pricing of data is not transparent, and exchanges “obfuscate the true costs to market participants”, said Virtu Financial in a comment letter to the SEC ahead of the Roundtable on Market Data and Market Access hosted by the regulator’s Division of Trading and Markets this week.
Virtu also said that exchanges are not just getting a double dip on fees, one for the data license and another for connectivity, they are charging several times for the same data.
Examples of excessive fees that the HFT firm to were: NYSE’s recurring fee is $22k/month and Nasdaq’s is $20k for renting connectivity cables, while at Amazon the “very same cable” is $189.50.