Guys, it works out cheaper if you pay the annual fee for eSig and DTNIQ (i.e. not on a monthly basis). BTW, just checked, if you get the annual pay deal from DTN.IQ, its $44.50 per month + $11 per month for Eurex data +$43 for full CME ($23 for eMini). Plus, $3 for each futures exchange added, PLUS - and I love this - a $25 surcharge for the receipt of Real Time International Futures data!!! That's GOLD Jerry! Of course I use neither service, but that is another issue altogether...
Come on guys. I hope that most of you just posting on this thread because you have some free time, I do not trade during this time, so periodically checking elitetrader. I trade part time (working on grub stake for full time trading), and $200 per month that I pay for e-signal (eurex and cme feeds) is just peanuts. Anyone who is serious about trading should not complain about few hundreds a month. Do you even realize how much this stuff used to cost? I also liked Tradestation, but they do not provide eurex feed, not sure why. As far as CQG, I was told by their rep that they do not support tick charts, does anyone knows if it is true? I'll be more than happy to pay twice/3 times more than I pay today if it will increase the quality of data that I get. One good (not even excellent) trade, and it'll pay for itself. I do not have any lag in e-signal quotes, they match my DOM identically. I have about 7-8mbps connection. Regards, redduke
Question for anyone here- What options are avaliable to someone who doesn't object to the higer fees, but just wants a more reliable service than e-signal? I will happily pay fees in the $300-400 range if the product is not full of bugs and the company doesn't take advantage of its customers. Any suggestions (outside of CQG)?
Hi RedDuke: I really don't think that most of the complaints are because eSignal's costs are too high, in general. I think most of the complaints are that eSignal is charging too much for the product they provide. I, for one, have continual delay problems when I'm running TICK charts, and the market begins to run. I can run TICK charts with Ensign, using the eSignal data feed, and they never miss a beat. I have two other data feeds that I watch in conjunction with e-Signal, and e-Signal is always behind the other two when the market runs, sometimes to the point of freezing for 20-30 seconds. Also, e-Signal seems to look for any excuse to raise their prices. E-Signal may be the best out there today (debatable), but , if someone finds a viable alternative, I firmly believe there will be a mass exodus away from e-Signal.
RedDuke, I have paid thousands of dollars in data fees over the past 11 years. It is not the cost of ESignal. It is just the fact that IB's TWS data feed outperforms it a fraction of the cost!!! So does DTNIQ. Esignals customer service is the worst. It was better when it was DBC and Bonneville --way back when. I have concluded that they only vaguely know WTF they are doing. If you don't mind spending money. I would use CQG. They do tick and volume charts and have for the last few years. They did not at one time have tick charts ---but that was a long time ago. It can cost you a few hundred more than ESignal. I would use IB with Sierra charts or Ensign over ESignal. IF you are anal about data CQG is going to blow everyone away. I have run every data feed you could name ---many of them side by side. IB and Ensign will generally perform as good as any realtime (it is right up there with CQG running them side by side in throwing out data--however TWS has different data parameters --so they are not giving out as many ticks etc----I have come to the conclusion that this does not effect my trading). Of course this makes sense -IB is pibbybacking Timberhill's infrastructure for it's traders. And Timberhill has to make money ---so it's data and trading infrastructure has to be reliable. CQG is the best. Every other data feed has it's positives and negatives. It depends on what you want. It is good that you are willing to spend money. 11 years ago if you wanted to daytrade ---you had to spend money. Now the game has changed price wise.
Hi Tnc$ddc, I got a slightly different vibe in this thread, but your point is valid, if people encounter tons of bugs and nothing being done to fix them. I use 1 min charts, and do not see any delays at all (eurex DAX futures), may be have not experienced it yet, I generally trade during European morning hours. In my eyes, $200 per month is very fare for the stuff that I get, but I have not dealt with any issues yet. I have been using e-signal since September 05. redduke
TGM, Thanks you very much for this info. I will check CQG out again, it is strange that their rep told me that they do not support tick charts (I called them few months back). I trade on very short time frame, and data quality is extremely important to me. Few hundreds extra a month will easily pay itself off. Cheers, redduke
Well I can tell you this. I have datraded for over a decade. When I first started using CQG in the mid to late 90's I thought that I had went to heaven! I was only used to ESignal prior to that. It was strange to have a hastle free data feed that always worked damn near perfectly. My first CQG bill was 1700 bucks and my how times have changed --now the same package costs about 850-900. About two years ago --I wanted a discount broker for stocks. I am only used to futures brokers. I opened an account with Tradestation and left them after 7 months. They kept promising Eurex quotes and never delivered. I then went to IB. IB kicks out all kinds of data over there API ---so I figured that I would try out one of the Charting packages that work with it. I hooked up ensign at 40 a month. Ensign comes with DTNIQ backfill but can backfill with IB's realtime backfill. I was shocked. It is the best deal going for a trader. Whether as a backup feed or a realtime feed. I subscribe to Eurex through IB at only 15 dollars a month and have been very surprised with the data quality. I can trade off 1-3 minute charts as good as CQG. Moral of the story is this ---if you want to pay good money for good quotes ---cqg is it. However, you will in likelyhood be fine with a setup like IB and Ensign ---it will cost 55 month together plus you got to swing over 2000 dollars to an IB account to open the account. It is the best deal going. I know people that were using the IB feed for backup and junked ESignal and just went with the IB feed because it is more stable in fast markets. IB is not perfect ----but I have not seen as many problems with them as I have with E-Signal. Everyone starting out now is damn lucky
TGM, Thanks again. Can you program indicators in Esign? They are basic, but I would need to code them, since they are not available in standard charting packages. redduke