"I know a couple of people trading from Taiwan. The problem for the majority of Taiwanese and even Hong Kongers about posting on this board is that they don't speak English." Well..I am one of the Local HongKongers or Honkies (that sounds really "crude"...doesn't it?...but I have acutally been label with the term when I was overseas ) that do understand a bit of english Just open a account last week, need some suggestions ,def, what would you recommend for datafeed to trade with IB, I am considering going for bloomberg LP which cost like HK$16000 per month...ouch...(cuz I need the relaiblity and I trade HSI and taiwanese, futures..also considering the KOSPI200) what would be some cheaper alternative to consider given my needs? btw..pretzel...are u taiwanese local and do u trade the taiwanese futures?...would love to talk to you about it...b4 using IB, that's basically the only futures market that I trade... oh...I will also be in taipei next week( I am changing brokerage)...may be the three of us can "hook up"..
forgot to mention... I happen to live in North point.. Is something going on in north point? how come I don't anything about it... well..may be that 's because I don't know any expats.. I don't hang out there cuz Causeway Bay is like 10 minutes away? but I do notice a increasing presense of expats at the local Fitness First where I work out..
HSI datafeed - why not just use IB's. the api reads it direct from the exchange. we don't offer taiwan of kopsi futures though. bloomberg for what you need would be overkill. northpoint, can't comment about that in an open forum
Vegasoul, I don't use either, but I believe both Futuresource and Reuters/Bridge carry all the markets you need - SGX (I'm assuming you're talking MSCI Taiwan), KSE and HKEX, at significantly lower price. Check their websites. I have absolutely no idea what the reliability is like compared to Bloomberg.
Thanks for the advice...def and hendrix Checked out futuresource...but they don't actually provide quotes for TAIFEX ... One more thing...def I am acutally seriouly considering a partial T1 (through PCCW) to the internet to trade with IB...How much bandwidth would be I need with TWS ? would 128k do? is it worth it or just another overkill? ( I am currently on residential DSL, but I would really like more reliaibility) I believe that I can also get a T1 point-to-point connection with the IB (saw it in the IB faqs)server bypassing the interent? is that right? would u mind runnning me through the details? Thanks....ehh...guess this post really have nothing to do with hooking up...
no need to get a T1. I'm not kidding when I say a 56K line will do. Ofcourse you'll want better reliability than a dialup and broadband is more then what is needed. I have so-net at home (so far i'm very satisfied). For redunancy you could use dial backup. so-net uses PCCW's infrastructure. I would have gotten orange by they don't service my building. Worst case you can always call the HK office to exit a trade.
thanks for the prompt reply my obsessive paranoia with connection relaibility arise from innumberous horror stories such as stoplosses orders delayed for 10 secs resulting in 6 figure loses (it hurts even to think about it now...) or watching 5 figure profit turn into a loses because my ISP had a 15minute network failure... the dollar amount loses due to these network problems would add up to support a T1 for many many years... but my expreience with IB so far have been great...but so was everything b4 you experience a problem... I saw this in the technical FAQ "Direct Connections What types of direct-connect or leased line solutions are available? For the ultimate in reliability, speed and security, some customers choose to install a dedicated connection to our servers via leased line or frame relay interface. Please contact an IB sales representative about leased-line connections." I believe I am ready to take the plunge...just spoke to a HKNET sales today...64k leased line are at $1800 dollars which is very reasonable... Tell me what u think and can u tell me who should I contact at IB HK regarding direct conncections?
I've found the HK ISP's very reliable. Outages do occur every now and then (we've had a few on our main ISP and had to revert to the backup a handful of times) but that is the norm anywhere. Even a lease line can get cut off - just think about all the construction in HK and I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. I'd try the broadband route first or a dedicated 64-256K line to your ISP. However, if you really want to explore a direct connection into our office, you should contact our salesperson (send me a PM if interested and i'll give you his details). The cost of the line is not the only cost though. For a lease line, you will charged a monthly minimum in commission. If you are trading high volume, then it might be cost effective. BTW, our trade desk in HK is quite responsive. If our service goes down, just give us a call or start a chat and we should be able to get you out of your trade.
Thanks for the advise...def need some time to consider all the options...the leased line looks like the most cost-effective I have no doubt you guys are doing a good job at HK IB, but I will be mostly trading the US markets...so I will be waiting for someone to pick up the phone on the other side of the world