Real Time

What is Real Time?

Real-time is a process when a system provides information to a user at a speed that is almost instant.

Online brokerages often provide a real-time data feed that displays stock quotes and their respective real-time changes, with a very insignificant lag time. Real Time helps clients to make their investment decisions on the most up-to-date information.

Real time is when a system relays information to a user at a speed that is near instantaneous or has a short delay from when the event actually occurred. While many financial websites do offer free stock quotes to the general public, many of these feeds are not real time and may be delayed up to 20 minutes. Therefore, when viewing stock quotes from any financial website, be aware of the time that is posted near the stock quote to verify whether the quote is actually in real time.

Possessing accurate real-time quotes is especially important for traders, as even the smallest time discrepancy between a provided quote and the real-time situation can change a profitable position into a loss.

Explaining Real-Time

Real-time is one such term that is derived from its usage in early simulation, wherein a real-world process is replicated at a rate that matches the real process, which is now known as real-time simulation. Most often, analogue computers were competent of simulating faster than real-time, which is again a situation that might be dangerous as a slow simulation if not recognised accurately or accounted for.

While several financial websites offer free stock quotes; most of this data is not real-time and could be a delayed result of almost 20 minutes. Thus, when inspecting stock quotes from any of the financial websites, be cautious of the time that has been posted around the stock quote to evaluate whether the data is real-time or not.

Acquiring precise real-time quotes is vital for trades as even the minor discrepancy in time between the real-time situation and offered quote could turn a profitable situation into a major loss.

Real-Time Computing Criteria

A system is real-time in case the total appropriateness of a specific operation is depending upon logical correctness as well as the time wherein it was performed. Real-time systems and their deadlines can be classified by the results of missing a deadline.

• Hard – missing a deadline is a complete failure of the system
• Firm – rare deadline misses are bearable but may damage the quality of service of the system. The result’s usefulness is zero after the deadline
• Soft – the result’s usefulness worsens after the deadline, thus degrading the quality of service of the system

Therefore, the objective of a hard real-time system is to make sure that all of the deadlines are completed. However, for a soft real-time system, the objective is meeting a few deadlines’ subsets to optimize certain application-specific criteria. The specific criteria optimised is dependent on the application. But, some examples of the same may include maximising the number of met deadlines, decreasing the task lateness and increasing the number of priority tasks.