Yes, of course. They don't bite. They want more business. I'm always amazed that people hesitate to get the story from the horse's mouth, instead of relying on anonymous chatters.
you can quote both sides no problem. we don't have any probs with quoting unless we go over 1000:1 quote/fill ratio. sometimes an issue if you are aggressive on an autospreader.
Depends on the product? According to CME for ES its 30:1 message to fill ratio at the executing firm level. Or do they count this by customer? I would assume the broker isnt too keen on eating the surcharges for excessive messaging..
My understanding is you're exempt from the MEP if you do under 20,000 raw messages a day. http://www.cmegroup.com/globex/files/revisedmep.pdf