The integrated Nasdaq/INET/BRUT will continue to offer a data feed called Openview Basic, which will supply top-of-book quotes only, for $6 per month, not $100, not $75, and not $14. http://nasdaqtrader.com/Trader/News/2006/vendoralerts/nva2006-050.stm
According to thelink you provided, total view is going to be 75 for professionals and 14$ for non professionals. regarding the $6 entitlement "*Please note that OpenView Basic continues to be a separate entitlement which does not contain full depth data and, at this time, remains fee liable at $6 per user per month." This entitlement wont display the ISB.
Right, but at least we can get Nasdaq's top of book for $6 a month, without paying for the entire book. For now. I fear what might happen, not just to data fees but to transaction and all other trading costs, if NYSE and Nasdaq successfully establish that since they bought out their competitors, they now have the right to raise taxes and to return us all to the good old days when they played monopoly.
i sent my letter off to the SEC - would also have done one to spitzer (i'm an ny state resident) but figure with the election, he's not putting anything new on his plate. basically, said look at all these things about how ARCA is transparent and now they're not, avg investor can't see quotes, and what happens if all ECNs/MMs charge for level 1 stuff - no quotes except executions, reverting back years. i'm not holding out hope, because the SEC seems to be a day late, if at all, for the investors/traders, and all about the people who are the big buckaroos.
I sent my letter off to the SEC a few days ago. I got a response saying (paraphrased): "Thanks for your input - we will see if there are similar complaints before taking any action. But it is always good to hear from the public." My hopes are not high but who knows.
Remember that the SEC had a long established policy of doing nothing, until Spitzer's crusade embarassed the SEC so thoroughly and repeatedly that they were forced to do something. So they gave us the new Regulation NMS, which would have given the ECNs a far more equal footing upon which to compete against the NYSE, AMEX, and Nasdaq. What quickly happened next? The "do-something" SEC Commissioner Donaldson, who gave us the Regulation NMS, was quietly pressed to resign by the Bush administration, so that the SEC could return to its "do-nothing" policies. The NYSE and Nasdaq were permitted to buy out their ECN competitors, so that they could return to their good old days of playing monopoly and respectable, honest stealing. Remember that it was Spitzer, not the SEC, who forced NYSE chairman Dick Grasso to leave office. Spitzer is leaving office, so there won't be any impetus for anybody to protect the little guy from a return to the unrestrained thievery of yore.
This whole business of the Major Exchanges snapping up the ECNs cannot be good, in the long run, for retail traders. I was under the impression that the playing field became a little more even with the advent of ECNs which provided competition for the big exchanges and the NASDAQ. Now we're back to monopolies again. I don't like it. It is bad for markets and bad for liquidity in the long run. And it's especially bad for retail traders and investors. I'm normally not a very political guy, but i'm very tempted to blame the republicans for a lot of crap including some not very helpful appointments to the SEC. Apparently its not just insurance companies that have been immunized against antitrust regulations.