Data Broadcasting Corp.: the Signal that does everything.

Data Broadcasting Corp.: The Signal that does everything

When a recent Futures survey of software users found Data Broadcasting Corp. Signal (previously known as FNN Signal) to be the most popular real-time data source among respondents ("How Today's Traders Grade Their Software," Futures,

"Signal seems to do everything," says Stan Lekach, president and developer of DollarLink [TM], a highly thought of real-time charting program that uses Signal for its data feed.

Lekach, like many, believes that what distinguishes Signal is its unprecedented compatibility with so many analytical software packages. More than 27 commercially available futures programs and 40 options programs employ a Signal data feed - more than any other quote service - which is critical to traders looking for a data vendor.

"People always want to have a choice," Lekach maintains. "That actually has changed the attitude of a lot of other vendors. For example, after we became better known, we started getting invited by other data feeds to convert our program to run their data as well because they wanted to put in their ads that such and such runs with their data, just like Signal has been doing for years. So they (Signal) have changed the thinking of the entire data-feed industry."

Part of what makes Signal unique among quote vendors is the way the company transmits market data. Information from all the major U.S. exchanges is instantly transmitted to Data Broadcasting's Network Control Center, which, in turn, broadcasts the data across North America via satellite. Subscribers receive market data just as the brokerage firms and big institutions are getting it - and are completely immune to the disruptions in telephone service that plague other data vendors.

Local FM radio stations in more than 30 metropolitan areas of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico monitor and broadcast market data to all nearby Signal receivers. Subscribers who are not within earshot of these FM facilities can still listen in with a direct satellite antenna.

George Easter, who has been trading primarily index options out of his home in Los Gatos, Calif., for the last three years, has been a satisfied Signal customer for the last seven years. To Easter, there are many reasons why Signal is the vendor of choice.