Professional feeds/software (i.e. Bloomberg, Reuters, CQG)?

MarketWatcher · Jul 10, 2003

Anyone familiar with the quality and price levels of the following professional quote systems:

1) Reuters
2) Bloomberg
3) CQG

There is no viable alternative for non-professional traders in my opinion. Qcharts and eSignal are a joke. Surprisingly, Ameritrade's suite of products (i.e. Streamer, Level II, T&S, DJ news) is my favorite at the moment despite its obvious limitations. The layout is nice and the service is fast and reliable.

market_man76 · Jul 10, 2003

Quote from MarketWatcher:

Anyone familiar with the quality and price levels of the following professional quote systems:

1) Reuters
2) Bloomberg
3) CQG

There is no viable alternative for non-professional traders in my opinion. Qcharts and eSignal are a joke. Surprisingly, Ameritrade's suite of products (i.e. Streamer, Level II, T&S, DJ news) is my favorite at the moment despite its obvious limitations. The layout is nice and the service is fast and reliable.

Qcharts may be a joke for stocks, or a large amount of symbols, I don't know. I'm using the feed just for indexes and futures and I don't have problems. Granted I'm only using about 20 symbols.

Please tell me specifically why qcharts feed is a joke? They get it from S&P Comstock right?

PoundTheRock · Jul 10, 2003

Bloomberg base system is $1640 per month, not including exchange fees (some buy it just for the news feed). Most trading firms have a soft-dollar arrangement with their prime broker or execution house to take care of these things, however.

If you have Bloomberg television, the alerts flash on the screen in real-time. If you want the kitchen sink, then get the Bloomberg. Otherwise, it's probably not worth it if you're paying your own way.

PTR

JayS · Jul 10, 2003

I think CQG Net is around $400 plus exchange fees. Also FutureSource ProNet (good alternative) is somewhere between $220-$250 plus exchange fees.

spreadem · Jul 10, 2003

I think CQG Net is around $400 plus exchange fees. Also FutureSource ProNet (good alternative) is somewhere between $220-$250 plus exchange fees.

Add about $200 per month; CQG net is about $600 and Pronet is about $450.

I have used both and I do recommend them. CQG just has more tools. I've never used Bloomberg.

Catoosa · Jul 10, 2003

I have used RealTick at $250 per month for several years. I have about 30 RealTick windows running on 8 monitors. RealTick has worked great for me.

funky · Jul 10, 2003

Quote from MarketWatcher:

Anyone familiar with the quality and price levels of the following professional quote systems:

1) Reuters
2) Bloomberg
3) CQG

There is no viable alternative for non-professional traders in my opinion. Qcharts and eSignal are a joke. Surprisingly, Ameritrade's suite of products (i.e. Streamer, Level II, T&S, DJ news) is my favorite at the moment despite its obvious limitations. The layout is nice and the service is fast and reliable.

I use quotetracker with IQFeed for $23/month. Never been down, and is lightning fast. don't know why people spend so much money on things they don't need......Ameritrade? are you kidding?

MarketWatcher · Jul 10, 2003

Quote from funky:

I use quotetracker with IQFeed for $23/month. Never been down, and is lightning fast. don't know why people spend so much money on things they don't need......Ameritrade? are you kidding?

Don't knock it until you've tried it. It is free for Apex customers (i.e. free streamer, level II, T&S, DJ streaming news, etc.). Ameritrade's fees are $10.99 a trade regardless of the size of the trade or manner of execution. You can manually route orders (to any ECN, MMs, SOES, etc.) through their dynamic trading platform (Command Center). I have been with all the major firms and Ameritrade is my favorite. They have the best fee structure, execution, reliability and customer service. They just need to offer futures trading.

I have compared their data/quotes against Qcharts and eSignal and found Ameritrade to be faster and more reliable. Does IQFeed work with Qcharts? IQFeed's website is so sparse. They need to provide more information. I emailed them and got no response. You must only get equity options for $23 a month. I like that they are direct to the exchanges unlike Qcharts which uses the third-party data provider S&P Comstock.

funky · Jul 10, 2003

Quote from MarketWatcher:

Don't knock it until you've tried it. It is free for Apex customers (i.e. free streamer, level II, T&S, DJ streaming news, etc.). Ameritrade's fees are $10.99 a trade regardless of the size of the trade or manner of execution. You can manually route orders (to any ECN, MMs, SOES, etc.) through their dynamic trading platform (Command Center). I have been with all the major firms and Ameritrade is my favorite. They have the best fee structure, execution, reliability and customer service. They just need to offer futures trading.

I have compared their data/quotes against Qcharts and eSignal and found Ameritrade to be faster and more reliable. Does IQFeed work with Qcharts? IQFeed's website is so sparse. They need to provide more information. I emailed them and got no response. You must only get equity options for $23 a month. I like that they are direct to the exchanges unlike Qcharts which uses the third-party data provider S&P Comstock.

I did try it. For 2 years. Also used Datek and Suretrade before that. You are kidding yourself. Seriously, listen to me. Get quotetracker, use IQFeed, and see if you like it. Its a 7-day free trial (the IQFeed..quotetracker is free unless you want to register for $7/month). I've gone through shitloads of execution platforms, charting programs, etc.....If you want reliability and lightning fast customer support, this is it.

One thing I used to think when I started out was that expensive meant good. I used to think that bells and whistles would make me more money. This is not the case in this industry. Don't fool yourself, or let other people fool you. There are many people out there that want to take you for a ride; make sure you know what car you'll be driving in.

As far as execution goes, this becomes less dependant, you just need lightning fast fills and a good order entry system, something that I found Ameritrade sorely lacked. IB is great for the reason that you can use many freeware or professional order entry programs, all customized the way you want. Also they are much more stable than Ameritrade's Command Center.

It sounds like you are new to the biz...you say you've been with 'all the major firms'...don't know what you mean by this? If you want to do this as a career, you need to do some more research. Good luck!

MarketWatcher · Jul 10, 2003

Quote from funky:

I did try it. For 2 years. Also used Datek and Suretrade before that. You are kidding yourself. Seriously, listen to me. Get quotetracker, use IQFeed, and see if you like it. Its a 7-day free trial (the IQFeed..quotetracker is free unless you want to register for $7/month). I've gone through shitloads of execution platforms, charting programs, etc.....If you want reliability and lightning fast customer support, this is it.

Quotetracker is an amateurish piece of crap. How am I kidding myself? It sounds like you haven't used Ameritrade recently as an Apex customer. I have also gone through shitloads of execution platforms, charting programs, etc. IB is good, but I don't like the fee structure. I'm not hampering my trading in the least by using Ameritrade. I am a swing trader and I frequently trade in quantity. A 100,000 share order with Ameritrade is $10.99. How much is it with IB?

One thing I used to think when I started out was that expensive meant good. I used to think that bells and whistles would make me more money. This is not the case in this industry. Don't fool yourself, or let other people fool you. There are many people out there that want to take you for a ride; make sure you know what car you'll be driving in.

Patronize much? Who the hell are you sonny boy? If bells and whistles aren't important to you why are you so averse to Ameritrade? I've never had it crash and the quotes are faster and more reliable than Qcharts and eSignal. I did side-by-side comparisons. Oh... and it is free.

As far as execution goes, this becomes less dependant, you just need lightning fast fills and a good order entry system, something that I found Ameritrade sorely lacked. IB is great for the reason that you can use many freeware or professional order entry programs, all customized the way you want. Also they are much more stable than Ameritrade's Command Center.

You are getting OT. I asked about price levels and quality of the professional quote systems. Ameritrade is currently on par with IB, MB, CyberTrader, etc. in terms of lightning fast fills, order entry and stability despite propaganda to the contrary. I am only referring to the relatively new Command Center console. It sounds like you are biased against Ameritrade for some reason. I have never had stability problems with Command Center running on Windows XP. Ameritrade just needs to offer futures trading.

It sounds like you are new to the biz...you say you've been with 'all the major firms'...don't know what you mean by this? If you want to do this as a career, you need to do some more research. Good luck!

I've been successfully trading full-time for five years. My research has led me to inquire about the professional quote systems since they don't list fees on their websites. I'm sick of the current options available to non-professionals. Qcharts is currently unusable, eSignal is a joke (maybe it was OK during the DOS years), QuoteTracker is crap. Ameritrade's suite of products is good, but insufficient for my needs. I wasn't impressed with RealTick when I used it with AB Watley a couple of years ago, but maybe it is better now. I need speed, reliability and direct links to the exchanges. For some reason you think I care about bells and whistles. I don't know what gave you that impression. A good, clean, customizable layout is essential, however. I like Qcharts except for the feed. IQFeed sounds promising, but I don't know which software vendors support them. QuoteTracker is not an option.