Securities information processor (SIP)

Proprietary direct feeds provide additional information for quotes and trades not protected by Reg-NMS, as well as a latency advantage over the SIPs given the location of the CTA/UTP SIPs. Although SIP data tends to cost less than proprietary feeds, it does not include valuable information such as whether the trade is buyer or seller initiated, as well as order IDs, which are necessary to determine the queue composition of each price level.

No, Databento sources all equities data from direct proprietary feeds only. Direct proprietary feeds provide more information than the SIPs, including trade aggressor side, odd lots, and auction imbalance.