Why Financial Platforms Must Publish Clear Market Data Methodologies

Financial platforms that display asset prices without explaining their sourcing leave analysts, auditors, and developers unable to verify whether a number is correct. A market data methodology document addresses three core questions: where prices originate, how bad inputs are filtered, and how conflicting venue data is resolved. SiftingIO, a market data platform, publicly outlines a four-stage pipeline that validates inputs for staleness and outliers, scores them using statistical methods like median absolute deviation, tracks per-venue reliability over time, and aggregates survivors into a volume-and-reputation-weighted median. The choice of a median over a simple average is deliberate — it requires a majority of venues to err simultaneously before the published price is skewed, offering stronger protection against bad data. In fragmented or on-chain markets where no single authoritative price exists, such cross-venue consensus methodology is especially critical for producing defensible valuations.