It has nothing to do with trading speed. It is a post-trade reporting function. Some people want immediate access to the data, some don't.
What data are you talking about? My positions and fills are in TT immediately. I can call in at any time and get an update from the FCM. Where and when would you want this data outside of that.
Portal information. Data that is more accessible in other brokers such as RJO. As far as actual trading, if you can click on it and get a fill confirmation ASAP is good enough to trade in. Different platforms provide different reports, so I really needed more from Dorman.
We have already moved our setup to a dedicated box in Elk area. Everything running very well even on windows based setup. I will not go live on larger capital with Windows environment through. But when working with 1 symbol load in between R Trader Pro and Excel/VB connection is very low (seems that its calculated in msg on bottom left corner) I am yet to investigate data flow IP wise. It does not seem very clear on the windows setup, but my management wants to make sure that we are as close as possible in term of the orders flow to the exchange.
From someone who has looked into this topic extensively, let me tell you that Rithmic and theomne represent and excellent value here. If you are concerned about risk checks, they have a system that sends a risk check to AMP prior to you making a trade, gets clearance, and then allows you to place the trade later without going through risk. I've never used it, just had it mentioned to me by the Rithmic staff, who are quite good. If you wanna get the lower latency without DMA, your best option is probably TT API with the gateway installed on your own server. If you're not attempting HFT and just want good uptime, I see no need for this as it's far more expensive than the very good value Rithmic provides. Don't expect to be first to the party with either of these solutions though. Good luck.
Something doesn't add up here. You are worried about network latency differences in the order of a few milliseconds but yet you have your R|API implementation talking to Excel via some VB code? Can that be right?
This is a snapshot from a live account & real trades for ES emini for the month of Sep 2015. 228 round Trades, $275 in commissions, max contracts on hand was 11 *yellow line. Red line indicates Capital balance.