Not sure the best area to ask this questions. I am looking to stream bid/asks in real time directly into excel cells (without having to refresh them manually) mostly for stocks and etfs, but futures would be handy too. What is the best/reasonable setup to do this without programming, I do currently already pay for many of these feeds through IB, but haven't attempted to set this up through the API yet, but I though it required manually refreshes? any other suggestions?
I think that that's what IB Excel example included with IB's API is designed to do, so just open their Excel and use it. I didn't see any programming needed, just opened their Excel file and it updates quotes real-time. You may also be able to create some formula to update different Excel file, or additional worksheets, etc. https://interactivebrokers.github.io/tws-api/dde_realtime_tutorial.html
If you have windows based machine and a TOS (TDA) account... You can use RTD to stream at whatever rate you desire (unattended and without programming). There is no fee, and the qty of references is practically unbounded (begin to tax excel, and TOS once you try more than 20,000 or so at a time)! Some countries in Europe, and down under may not be allowed by TDA.
Eze EMS (formerly RealTick) can do this on their Pro version with API enabled and their Eze EMS for Microsoft Excel enabled. See attached and these links. https://www.lightspeed.com/trading-platforms/realtick-pro-and-express/realtick-platform-features/, https://emsportal.ezesoft.com/download.aspx?sidenav=rtapi. This can handle Equities, Options, and Futures.
Use IB RTD server for excel. https://interactivebrokers.github.io/tws-api/tws_rtd_server.html#rtd_introduction
Thanks for all the suggestions- was too busy today to experiment but will experiment next week- thanks for recommendations.