I was able to bypass the ITG guy and get in touch directly with a RedSky person. $100 port charge for FIX and competitive commissions. Sounds promising.
I got stuck with IB trying to setup a test connection to test my gateway... I think I'll go prop route soon. Laser Genesis Laser is pretty popular and it supports FIX connections, so it shouldn't be a problem... Pretty much every more or less serious broker/prop support FIX since their OMS talks in FIX with ECNs/exchanges/DMA brokers.
Do you have a short list of prop firms that you're looking at? I guess I could consider that avenue, but I'm afraid of it because I have no experience. Do you have to comingle your money with the prop firms? Are you comfortable that the prop firm will not try to data mine their traders for profitable strategies? I've been to Genesis's office and I'll just say it did NOT make me comfortable with them as a firm.
Do search on this site, you'll find tons of info... There is no easy answer for this question. And as long as you run your own box, there is a very little chance that someone will try to deduce your strategy based on the order flow. I can imagine that, but it's extremely risky to tag along with customer orders...
Spec, Currently I'm programming the IB API. I'm not the strongest programmer but I should be able to get it doing what I want. I see what you say about how if you go to another broker you are going to have to learn another language, as I'm already kinda thinking I'd like to switch to Genesis How difficult is it to program a FIX gateway? I took a look at the website you mentioned, Quickfix, however I was wondering what level of programming knowledge is required to complete that task? Thanks