Replacement Money Quote Source

This topic deals with the withdrawn MS Money Compatible Quote Source Subscription product. This product was listed in the PalOMoney.com store and withdrawn in early 2013. The product summary was: Subscription to replace the now offline MS Money quote servers.

Original Product Description

[Unreleased, in development.] Subscription to replace the now offline MS Money quote servers with the PalOMoney quote source. Includes a small app to configure the quote source in MS Money.

• Use this product instead of PalOMoney with MS Money versions prior to Sunset to reinstate online quotes. Also works with Money Sunset via the PalOMoney app.
• Fund your account with a minimum starting balance, and draw usage charges against the account, with optional automatic replenishment.
• Usage charges are tiered according to your specified quote delay and usage volume. Less delay costs more per quote, more quotes qualify for a lower rate. When the service is near release, we can calculate how much quotes will cost. When and if the site usage increases, the cost per quote will most likely go down. The markup to you the end customer will be just enough to maintain the site.
• Note: MS Money versions 2008 and earlier work on existing installations only. Reinstalling requires Microsoft product activation, however, this product does not replace the Microsoft activation servers that supported installing MS Money 2008 and earlier on a new machine.
• Note: For low delay, high volume, real time quotes, consider using a real trading platform instead of pushing these quotes through Money. In some cases, these platforms can be without additional charge when obtained via a brokerage if your account balance is high enough. Otherwise, the brokerage will likely charge a platform fee. Shop around.

Discussion

PalOMoney.com developed a replacement compatible service to test the undocumented "Easter Egg" Money interface in the "MoneyPal" quote updating utility. The MS Money server interface is very non-standard binary blob, and fairly complex as well. This was initially going to be offered on an experimental basis for testing, but was withdrawn when potential testers confused the PalOMoney product with the replacement service. Also, the service would only work with activated copies of Money 2008 and earlier, but the MS activation servers went down a couple of years ago, so it wouldn't do too many any good unless the activation server could be reinstated. However, doing so would require massive reverse engineering, which is very difficult, is in violation of the MS EULA, and might trigger a negative response from Microsoft. Finally, PalOMoney.com has no rights to redistribute financial data from other sources, and acquiring appropriate redistribution rights is expensive, requiring lots of paying customers to be a viable option.

When last tested in late 2012, the Money MSN servers were still working. This has several implications, which may be discussed later. Testing is restricted because PalOMoney.com has no rights to access the remaining MSN servers.