I use IB Regular (Pro). Kids want to open brokerage a/c(s) and I am wondering about data fees in IB Lite accounts. They won't be trading actively, it will be more of a portfolio construction / asset allocation thing and they will let things be for the time being. But at the same time, I want them to learn / paper trade more "advanced" strategies involving futures / fop, so access to real time data when needed will be nice. Not really interested in "snapshot" data bullshit IB has, however. Do IBKR Lite users pay for futures data fees? I think stock / option L1 data is free right?
If I look at the website I see market data is free for US stocks / ETFs. The cheap/free "US bundle" (in which stocks are not free BTW) is only available for PRO. So if you want (CME) futures (assuming you talk about ES or something) you have to buy CME Real-Time Top of Book (L1) for $1.25. And if you want equity options you have to buy OPRA Top of Book (L1) (US Option Exchanges) for $1.50 (note that's the same for PRO).
Thank you for your feedback, but I am looking for feedback from actual IB Lite users as what IB writes and what IB does can be two different things. But yeah, I am also leaning towards TOS. What I miss most in TOS is the "Time lapse skew" to understand how the skew has moved in the last day / week / month. To the best of my knowledge, TOS doesn't have this (or have this in a user friendly way)
TDA it is. Cleanest for anyone not planning to trade frequently. Zero monthly fees, ability to use desktop + mobile simultaneously, lot of benefits
So OPRA does not include data for CME options like spx/ndx or es/mes etc? its only for stock options?