From the early '90's to about 2009 I used CQG exclusively, and from time-to-time I had a Bloomberg terminal depending upon the nature of the firm I was at. I went to eSignal because it had the spread charting capabilities and the ability to accommodate my custom indicator package at a price point agreeable to my clientele. I am not very fond of eSignal, but in terms of cost and capability it appears to do the job. I have had several of my clients adapt my indicator package for use on CQG and Bloomberg. I used real time data until recently, as my clients were relating to me that they have found it doable to use delayed data for swing trading purposes. I have used delayed data for maybe a year now and I have to agree with them. If want to look at a live market, all I have to do is pull up the exchange spread DOM order ticket for the spread combination of interest on my execution platform. I have also subscribed to CSI since 2008.
Problem is, I believe you have to have market data for this - which means you're now paying for undelayed data.
If I do, it's hidden in my monthly execution platform cost and I am blissfully unaware of it. I actually have my execution platform on a different machine than my charting package. The execution platform has its' own price server - correct me if I'm wrong... That's how TT does their X-Study and CTS has a similar charting function in fact.
I also have many clients clearing Crossland as well. In terms of choosing a clearing firm for spread trades, careful due diligence of any FCM with respect to how their Risk Department margins spread trades intraday is likely to be crucial for those with modest funds. Many of the smaller, more retail oriented Introducing Broker type of firms assign outright flat price risk to each spread leg component - which can be a back breaker. These types of firms have clients who are largely directional speculators with flat price instruments, and so their Risk System simply does not account for spread offset margin credits.
Bone, you said intraday in your last post. Did you mean to say overnight? Recent posts have focused on modeling in longer time frames and delayed data which aligns with overnight swing trading. Not sure if that was just a typo, or if you're advocating daytrading spreads.
I think he was just saying that the brokers who cater more to traditional outright traders are more likely to be behind the curve on accurate margining for spread traders with the latter ending up caught up in margining rules that should apply to them less.
Understood, I got that. But it's the overnight margin that can be crushing. If I were interviewing brokers for spread trading, that would be a top-of-list question. I suspect that's what he meant to say, but we'll see.
I would argue that the intraday margining would be more crushing than the overnight margining provided that your clearing firm follows the exchange rules for spread inter and intra market SPAN margin offsets. The daily statement for overnight positions should incorporate the exchange clearing SPAN margin offsets for spread positions. If a clearing firm does not follow the exchange rules, then that IMHO is a compliance issue that needs to brought to the attention of the exchange ( for which the clearing firm better be a member and therefore bound to the exchange rules ). The problems that I have seen with these smaller, more retail-oriented futures brokers is that they apply flat price risk to each spread leg component in terms of intraday risk monitoring. Which is NOT a good thing. One of the great appeals to spread trading is the fact that the initial margins are significantly cheaper than trading flat price regular or even mini futures contracts. All I am saying is that you need to make sure that the FCM makes some sort of reasonable intraday risk margining allowance for spreads in their monitoring system.