any low cost real-time market data source??

[Metamega]

If IB is making you pay professional fees then any provider will as well. Those fees are from the exchanges. IQFeed does the same.

If I recall correctly Robert Morse mentioned something about NYSE auditing clients over professional status.

 

[kmiklas]

Most likely, they don't send the tick when the price is same only more shares have traded.

Agreed.

So in your table above, the price for all three would be 17.46 for example and they would only send once in 250ms interval.

The table shows three ticks at 1ms, 2ms, and 3ms. I'm demonstrating how a price quote is computed in one 250ms period. Let me clarify that in the table.

If the price ticks up or down, they may send it prior to 250ms expires. That would make more sense, but hey it's IB.

Yeah I remember them talking about that. Only if the price in the previous period was unchanged.

The volume that comes with the tick is not the cumulative volume for that period but the volume of the last processed tick it seems, so pretty much useless (but most people don't care about volume anyway).

This surprises me, are you sure? What's the point of only using the volume of the last processed tick? That makes no sense at all.

 

[wrbtrader]

If IB is making you pay professional fees then any provider will as well. Those fees are from the exchanges. IQFeed does the same.

If I recall correctly Robert Morse mentioned something about NYSE auditing clients over professional status.

How would they know via the auditing clients (tax status, online message posts, linkedin profile) that you're a professional ?

I've seen some retail traders make the mistake of thinking that self-employed and trading their own account = professional

wrbtrader

 

[kmiklas]

How would they know via the auditing clients (tax status, online message posts, linkedin profile) that you're a professional ?

wrbtrader

You have to declare if you're an amateur or professional when you set up any brokerage account, and may have to confirm it yearly.

A key consideration is if you are trading with other peoples' money. That's a big one; I think that you might need to be licensed to do this.

 

[qlai]

What's the point of only using the volume of the last processed tick? That makes no sense at all.

The cumulative volume comes separately from the ticks. So you can still calculate the total volume, but you cannot match the volume to ticks. It's f*d up. They have a new way to get tick by tick data, but there are stricter limits on number of subscriptions. I got to give credit to IB for having very fine grained offerings ... you can pay for only what you need.

 

[kmiklas]

The cumulative volume comes separately from the ticks. So you can still calculate the total volume, but you cannot match the volume to ticks. It's f*d up. They have a new way to get tick by tick data, but there are stricter limits on number of subscriptions. I got to give credit to IB for having very fine grained offerings ... you can pay for only what you need.

I am going to call them on this.

 

[ZBZB]

The Sierra chart data feed is the cheapest at $20 a month plus $25 for sierrachart.

 

[qlai]

I am going to call them on this.

Just to be clear ... I'm talking about getting data via API. TWS itself may be getting data differently so manual traders may not see the difference.

 

[kmiklas]

Just to be clear ... I'm talking about getting data via API. TWS itself may be getting data differently so manual traders may not see the difference.

I called them. They transferred me around; and... nobody knows.

They told me to file a support ticket, so that they can route it to the right person.

So, at this point, let's assume sorcery and magic.

 

[ZBZB]

If you want data by api then www.worldtradingdata.com is cheapest.