T-QUOTES
T-QUOTES is CoinAPI’s normalized quote data type for bid and ask updates, representing the best available buy and sell prices from an exchange at a point in time.
T-QUOTES is used to describe quote messages in CoinAPI market data. A quote message usually contains the best bid price, best bid size, best ask price, best ask size, exchange, symbol, and timestamps that identify when the quote was observed or made available.
Unlike trade data, which records completed transactions, quote data describes the current prices at which market participants are willing to buy or sell. This makes T-QUOTES useful for spread analysis, liquidity monitoring, price discovery, and reconstructing best bid and offer conditions over time.
Because quotes can update frequently, downstream systems need to handle quote ordering, sparse quote streams, carry-forward behavior, and market conditions such as locked or crossed quotes. T-QUOTES provides a normalized structure so applications can process quote updates consistently across exchanges.
What does T-QUOTES mean in market data?
In market data, T-QUOTES refers to a quote record type that captures bid and ask information for a trading symbol. It represents the price levels available to buy and sell, usually at the top of the order book.
A T-QUOTES message is not the same as a trade. A trade shows what already executed, while a quote shows current buying and selling interest. Quote messages can change rapidly as orders are placed, modified, canceled, or replaced on an exchange.
How is T-QUOTES different from trades or order book data?
T-QUOTES focuses on best bid and ask information, while trades represent completed executions and order book data can include multiple price levels or the full book state.
For example, a trade record may say that 1 BTC traded at a specific price. A T-QUOTES record may say that, at that moment, the best bid was one price and the best ask was another. Full order book messages may provide deeper levels beyond the best bid and ask.
How should developers use T-QUOTES?
Developers should use T-QUOTES when they need normalized bid and ask data for pricing, spread calculations, liquidity checks, or historical quote analysis. Applications should pay attention to timestamps, symbol identifiers, exchange identifiers, quote ordering, and whether missing intervals should be treated as sparse data or filled through carry-forward logic.
When replaying or analyzing quote history, developers should also distinguish between the time a quote applies to and the time it becomes available in a dataset. This helps avoid look-ahead bias in backtesting and analytics workflows.
Real-World Example
Suppose an exchange reports that the best bid for BTC/USD is 69,950 and the best ask is 69,955. CoinAPI can normalize that update as a T-QUOTES message with the exchange, symbol, bid price, ask price, sizes, and timestamps.
A trading system may use this message to calculate a 5 dollar spread. A historical analytics system may store the same quote to study liquidity conditions throughout the trading day. If the next interval has no new quote, the system may need to decide whether to treat the time series as sparse or carry the last known quote forward.