Anyone want to comment on brownsfan questions? I have watched the HSI on IB through ninja a few times... the chart seems at least 2 or 3 minutes delayed. Doesnt seem like it would be tradable through the IB data feed. Anyone else experience this?
No. Much much thinner. I'd want to be trading longer swings to make up for likely slippage. I watched this one for a couple of months.
HHI is the China H-share index (HSCEI - Hang Seng China Enterprise Index). It recently rec'd CFTC approval. The H-shares have been very hot of late. The future is thin but there is plenty of hidden liquidity. apex2, I'm not sure what you are seeing via 3rd party charting software but I assure you that the HSI feed that IB puts out to the clients comes direct from the exchange API w/o delay. It's as real time as you are going to get.
My advice if you are trading HSI would be to use IB for prices with a charting package such as Sierra. IB's snapshot data feed is a superb approach for fast markets like HSI and gives you an advantage over many other players. If you use something like eSignal which lags when the market kicks off you are at a huge disadvantage and will be trying to hit prices that are already gone at best, at worst you could be buying into a spike that has already reversed. You are up against people getting their prices from a Bloomberg server physically located in Hong Kong and with negligible latency to the exchange. Secondly IB seems to invest appropriately in server capacity for margin checking - often a major bottleneck in a fast market with some brokers - often mistaken for internet latency etc. I traded HSI from Thailand with 200-300ms of internet latency but really don't feel that I am at a disadvantage as with IB these two speed factors seem to offset that latency. Those that use anything else except IB or BBG are at a disadvantage IMHO. No connection with the company. Credit where due.
Thanks for the update on HHI ... its a couple of months since I looked at it. Re IB. I use IB for trading and data feed with Sierra Chart for charts and Zero Line Trader for order entry. My round trip to HK is 170-190ms and its great.
APEX82. My experience with platforms written with .net such as Ninja or Marketdelata is they can't keep up with HSI. I had problems with both of these hanging when the market really moved. Take a look at Buttontrader/IB combo execution - BT can keep up.