FTB-C000092 / Data quality concept

Stale Data

Stale data is information whose age or lack of expected update makes it unsuitable under a declared freshness policy.

Also known asstalenessstale quote

Foundation 4 linked topicsPublished

Definitions

In plain terms

A quote can remain unchanged because the market is quiet or because updates stopped; the detector needs context before classifying it.

Technical

Staleness requires a timestamp owner, comparison clock, expected update model, session state, threshold, instrument activity context, and source-health evidence.

Scope

Unchanged does not automatically mean stale, and thresholds are use-case-specific.

Examples

  • A governed dataset records stale data explicitly and preserves the source context needed to interpret it.

Common misconceptions

  • Stale Data does not have one universal meaning or policy without its declared source, scope, and data contract.

Concept relationships

Prerequisites

Related

Where this concept is used

Tutorials planned

These catalogued topics use this concept, but their complete build has not shipped yet.

  • D01-F02-A04 Primary
  • D01-F03-A01 Important
  • D01-F04-A03 Important
  • D03-F06-A02 Important

Evidence and governance

  1. FIX Latest Online Specification — Market Data FIX Trading Community · official standard

    Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition

    Limits: Implementations use negotiated profiles; FIX fields do not impose one universal feed, stale-data, deduplication, or reconciliation policy.

  2. Fintech Builder Glossary Definition Contract The Fintech Builder · internal governed contract

    Supports: variant distinction

    Limits: Defines governed platform behavior rather than claiming these policies are universally prescribed by external McClellan methodology.

Reviewed by
Last reviewed
2026-07-26
Next review
2027-07-26
Record status
published
Written by

Fintech engineer building market-data and financial systems, and the author of every article, glossary record, and reference implementation on The Fintech Builder.