$25/month is not really stealing, but whatever. If an "extra" $25/month is too much for you, perhaps you should rethink trading.
DTM I respect your views, but to me the cost of monthly data fees is peanuts compared to the amount of money "stolen" from sizeable customer accounts in the form of crappy interest rates on available cash. Unbelievable, this is free money for the Cruz gang and no-one says anything! Although this varies from time to time, you might need to have some dosh invested as cash - this is known as asset allocation, whereby your position on the Capital allocation line determines the amount invested in the optimally risky portfolio and the amount invested in the risk-free (or near risk free) asset, i.e., T-Bills is a reasonable proxy for this. Of course this assumes you believe in such dodgy concepts as utility theory and risk aversion coefficients. of course, you might simply just go to cash 'cause you want out for the time being. Now either TS management does not have a clue about modern portfolio theory (not an unlikely scenario), or they are enjoying ripping their customers off (the Cruz brothers need new boats and a place in the Hamptons). Unfortunately I like the look and feel of TS charts, so I still have an account with them (why did I ever buy TS2000i years ago?). However, I do NO futures trading through them, and my equities account is slightly above the bare minimum level required. All funds are now distributed across 3 other brokers. Why people don't pick up on this (the interest rate on cash rip off) and kick up a fuss, I do not know.
Here's the best thing to do, imho. Put 5-10k in a futures account ( that way you are not hurting too bad with there pathetic interest rate). Do the whole 10 round trips a month. That takes care of the platform fee. So all you have to pay is the $25 for the data and the $42.60 in commisions(10ct*2.13(side)=21.30/side*2=42.60). So you pay $67.60 a month. If you actually make money on your trades that will pay for it. $67 for data and a very good charting program is not expensive at all. Take a look at esignal and you will pay over $200/month. If the $67/month BUSINESS EXPENSE is too much for you, then I doubt you are treating trading like a business.
I don't do ugly. I used to build electronic prototypes for engineers. They would always say "I don't care how it looks" but I got tired of looking at all the ugly stuff sitting around the lab so I geared up to make absolutely beautiful things and I did. It made a huge difference in my quality of life and some of the engineers liked it all when they saw it. Is there another charting package that is as nice to look at and use as TS? If there is I still won't change, it is good to have a second brokerage account anyhow, meanwhile who gives a rats posterior about a couple hundred a month one way or the other if they are trading?
No it's not too much for me. If it is too much for Tradestation, then maybe they should close their doors and start a different business. Tradestation is the ONLY broker that charges for datafeeds. And YES, $25.00 a month IS stealing. Even a penny overcharging IS STEALING. Overcharging for ANYTHING IS STEALING.
Tradestation needs the money in their futures accounts and that is why they charge the $50.00 a month. They have plent of stock trading customers, but hardly no futures trading customers. They only have 700,000 worth of customers according to their financial statements gives to the CFTC. Their competitors like Global futures has $43,000,000(43 million). That is why Global futures and most of the other CME futures brokers do not charge for data feeds and Tradestation charges, because tradestation has NO CUSTOMERS in their futures accounts and they need your money. The other brokers don't. Tradestation is not a good company for futures trading(CME emini). Here is their financial statements. It's in alphabetically order http://www.cftc.gov/files/tm/fcm/tmfcmdata0701.pdf
Maxpi had the right idea. All those other companies that give 'free' data do not offer the type of things that TS can offer. If you can not use them fine, go with one of the brokers where you get free data. I looked at the others that offer free data and their charts were not very customizable and not very user friendly. It is $25/month for the mini-package data, the $50 is if you want the entire CME. For everything that I can do with TS , it is well worth the $25. The fact that you think anything "overpriced" is stealing is laughable. I guess you would not own anything high end. Why would you buy a Mercedes since they are overpriced, thus stealing from you. Why not just buy a used Kia. Since that is not overpriced. They both do the same thing right? Also,why are you paying for internet?? They are obviously overcharging and stealing from you too. Just go the local library or Boarders and use theirs for free. Cant beat free, right??. Oh hell, maybe check your wireless internet and see if you can use one of your neighbors. It looks like the whole world is overcharging and stealing.
Who cares if Mickey Mouse clears for them. They only have 700,000 in their futures account. Less than 1 Mill. They have no futures trading customers. End of story. Period.
these guys say you can have live charts (esignal) and they make you pay for them and then you see that the live charts are 20 min delayed...