there is no such thing as best. do you need to write your own algos? what kind of charting do you need? what broker do you prefer and how much of commissions will you be paying? what is the acceptable latency. just some questions to determine your style of trading.
how is it that IB and my bank can have the same interest rates? and how is it possible they have dividends info when the company haven't announce it? as much as i don't trust brokers, i don't trust their data as far as things go. are you trying to get implied interest rates? The black-scholes...
i'm not sure what you're smoking, but take a look at the exchange contract specs:
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/e-mini-sandp500_contract_specifications.html
TorS likely indicates the closing bell is for the equity indexes at 3p.m. Trading halt at 3.15p.m.
TST is a...
mid price may represent an unrealistic value that is not traded, while bid/ask may represent values that are not indicative of the current traded market. consider using last traded price.