The score above, in five steps. The full method, counts and limits are in the post.
1
One machine, one clock
Six London feeds recorded at the same time on one machine in a London data centre. One clock stamps every update, so we can say which feed showed a price first.
XAUUSD · Fri 14 Aug 2026 · 11:57–21:00 UTC · 9 market-open hours
2
A score out of 100
Speed 45 + Consistency 35 + Stream quality 20
Black94.8
London Alpha76.4
London Ultra73.2
LD Beta 5642.4
LD Gamma 1914.5
LD Delta 186.0
Speed and Consistency are relative to this run: the best feed gets full marks, the weakest 0.
3
Head-to-head: who shows the new price first
Black was first on 89% of moves against London Alpha, 91% against London Ultra and 98% against each LD feed. London Alpha against London Ultra was close to even (54% / 46%).
Who shows the new price firstRow feed first on X% of the price moves both feeds showed within 100 ms
row first vs →
Black
Alpha
Ultra
Beta 56
Gamma 19
Delta 18
BlackBlack
89%
91%
98%
98%
98%
London AlphaAlpha
11%
54%
95%
96%
95%
London UltraUltra
9%
46%
92%
98%
98%
LD Beta 56Beta 56
2%
5%
8%
95%
93%
LD Gamma 19Gamma 19
2%
4%
2%
5%
93%
LD Delta 18Delta 18
2%
5%
2%
7%
7%
0%100%
Measured Fri 14 Aug 2026, 11:57-21:00 UTC (9 market-open hours, XAUUSD) | one machine in a London data centre | Black recorded from 12:41 UTC
4
Stalls and worst-case gaps
A stall is a gap of more than 500 ms between updates. The worst case is the 99th-percentile gap.
London Alpha
695 ms worst case · 2.0% stalls
LD Gamma 19 · LD Delta 18
1,484 ms worst case · about 9.9% stalls
5
A network-level cross-check, from the next run
This run used software timestamps only; no packet capture was taken. From the next run, a Wireshark / Npcap capture runs alongside, to show how much of a feed's delay is the feed and how much is our own machine.
Updates per hour (context, not a score input)Price updates per UTC hour, in thousands. The 11:00 hour covers 11:57-12:00 only; Black starts at 12:41.
LD Gamma 19 and LD Delta 18 overlap (near-identical counts).
Measured Fri 14 Aug 2026, 11:57-21:00 UTC (9 market-open hours, XAUUSD) | one machine in a London data centre | Black recorded from 12:41 UTC
Stream quality input: gaps between updatesShare of each feed's gaps by length (ms, log scale; 0.1 ms to 31.6 s). The dashed line is the 500 ms stall threshold; p99 is the worst-case gap.
Blackp99 742 ms · 2.2% stalls
London Alphap99 695 ms · 2.0% stalls
London Ultrap99 762 ms · 2.4% stalls
LD Beta 56p99 898 ms · 3.4% stalls
LD Gamma 19p99 1,484 ms · 9.9% stalls
LD Delta 18p99 1,484 ms · 9.9% stalls
Measured Fri 14 Aug 2026, 11:57-21:00 UTC (9 market-open hours, XAUUSD) | one machine in a London data centre | Black recorded from 12:41 UTC
Spread shown by each feed (context, not a score input)USD per oz, tick-weighted. Dot = median, bar = 95th percentile, line = 99th percentile.
The axis does not start at $0: the whole range shown is 7 cents ($0.14 to $0.21), so small gaps look larger than they are.
Measured Fri 14 Aug 2026, 11:57-21:00 UTC (9 market-open hours, XAUUSD) | one machine in a London data centre | Black recorded from 12:41 UTC
One run. One Friday session, one instrument (XAUUSD), one location. Scores are relative to this run and can't be compared across runs. Being first is not the same as being right. This measures price data arriving at our machine: it is not a guarantee, and it says nothing about fills or slippage.
Each Horizon feed runs in one region. You pick the region nearest your broker's trade server, and the client takes its prices from there.
We name the data centre for each region so you can put your VPS in the same building or close to it.
RegionData centreInstruments
London UPLD4FX, gold & indices
New York UPNY4FX majors, metals & US indices
Chicago UPUS Central (Chicago)CME futures, delivered as cTrader FIX, B FIX or Horizon Direct
2 · How it works
The feed is the first box
The same diagram as the home page, with the feed lit. The feed sends prices to the client. Orders and fills go between the client and your broker.
Log in at feed.horizonhft.comWith your Horizon account. One account works across all Horizon areas.
Pick a regionThe one closest to your broker's trade server.
Connect the client to itRegister your server's IP in the portal (Account → Servers). Request access on the feed's page; requests are reviewed within 24 hours and we confirm on Telegram. Once approved, the feed streams to your registered IP.
Prefer done-for-you? We can handle setup end-to-end: server, feed handler, delivery to your MT4/MT5/FIX endpoint, and monitoring.
3 · What you get
What you get
Browse this page without an account. Log in to choose a region and see your own feed.
Prices
A feed in the region you pick
Prices go straight into the Horizon client. Your broker account stays your own.
Tiers and price
Tiers by region
London: Black (flagship), Base (a bundle of three feeds from one provider), Alpha and Ultra (coming soon)
New York: Base
Chicago: CME Futures, $50 per server, delivered as cTrader FIX, B FIX or Horizon Direct; you choose the connection type when you request access
Black: flagship institutional feed, not available at this moment. Base: three feeds sold as one bundle. All feeds are delivered by IP allowlist to one registered server per licence. Other prices are shown in the portal after you log in.
Your feed dashboard
Your feed, after log in
Your licence status, active feeds, software downloads, community access, education and recent alerts.
feed.horizonhft.com
Run a price feed?
Feed providers can apply to list a feed in the Horizon marketplace. The application is on the Feeds site.
