Consolidated tape
Also known as: the tape
The consolidated tape is the real-time data feed that reports every trade in a given across all the exchanges and trading venues where it can legally execute, combined into a single stream. Rather than having to check the NYSE feed, the feed, and every other venue separately, market participants can watch the consolidated tape and see the full picture of trading activity in a as it happens, regardless of which specific venue each trade occurred on.
This consolidation exists because US can trade on many competing venues at once, and a fragmented view of only one venue's trades would miss most of what is actually happening in the . The consolidated tape reports each trade's price, size, and time almost instantly, which is what powers the streaming quotes and trade prints that and financial data services display to investors. The phrase "watching the tape" comes from this feed and still gets used even though nobody is literally reading a paper tape anymore.
Because the consolidated tape reflects actual executed trades rather than posted bids and offers, it is different from the or the , which show pending interest and the best available prices rather than completed transactions. requires this kind of consolidated, publicly available trade and quote information as part of ensuring that all market participants have access to the same basic picture of what is trading and at what price.