There are other issues besides average latency (pings).
Unreliable connections, intermittent saturation of bandwidth limits (with DSL and cable), dropped packets, latency spikes and out of order packets will all introduce intermittent (spiking) lags into TCP streams.
As far as I know, IB throttles each clientâs connection by not sending every tick. This helps avoid individual client overuse of bandwidth, saturation of local connections and server overload during extreme market activity. As a result IB will not lag as much as other data providers who try to push every tick and risk having their servers unable to meet peak demand.
This is why I hope IB does not start sending every tick like many traders have asked for. At least if they do, it should be an option for only those who require it.
If traders need to know every tick for proper evaluation of stop conditions, then perhaps IB should send high/low intervals, indicating the range of prices traded since the last update, without having to send too many ticks.
