Quote from ammo:relatively quick, what if you had a bar and had 12 laptops trying to pull off your signal,is that the same as having 12 monitors with different graphs..and thanks for answering
It's not quite like that but close.
For example, I have five data feeds coming into the same location. Each feeding a different trader or fund. Each feed is slightly different but overall I'm pulling the entire market (futures, options & equities) about 2.5-3x versus just pulling in one feed and syndicating it internally. That means my all-in overall bandwidth usage is about 3-4 times what it could be, similar to having 12 users on laptops all pulling their own data.
With most retail trading platforms (over the internet) they use a protocol which calls or asks for the data. This means if you have a chart up the program literally calls out to the server it's connected to and asks "can I have the price or chart for ticker XYZ". Your broker doesn't just push the information to you, you have to ask for it. Because of this, having 12 charts up will use more bandwidth than having only three up, but the difference is trivial compared to running 12 separate instances of the trading platform.
During the flash-crash I was trading prop. The biggest automated trader (small group of four guys with about 20 machines) in our office only managed to pull 17mb/sec sustained of market data. I was using Bloomberg at the time and feeding about 8 machines and I only spiked up to 8-9mb/sec sustained. On average a trader or trading platform will pull 1-2mb/sec over the internet. A T1 line at 1.54mb/sec **should** give a single trader all he/she ever needs for bandwidth.
https://support.skype.com/en-us/faq/FA1417/how-much-bandwidth-does-skype-need
That should give you an idea of what different types of calls and internet transmissions use. Remember your broker isn't actually pushing you the charts. A chart is just a local graphical representation of the price data being received.
Another good example: Colleges and Universities are known for having an extremely good LAN/intranet (infrastructure) but the running joke is that their WAN/internet is usually terrible. There were times not too long ago when schools with 30,000 students and employees were connecting to the world on less than a 1GbE. When kids would plug their laptops or PCs into the wall in their dorm room they would each see gigabit Ethernet though. Every time there is a "what is your internet speed" you can always tell who the college kids are.