Hey guys, I'm looking to write my own automated trading software and am wondering which interactive broker to go with and where to get my streaming intraday quotes from. Ultimately, my goal is to write software which will take real-time intraday quotes, use the data to decide whether to short a stock or not and then if the shorting is a go fill the order with some broker. For the real-time, intraday quotes, I was considering using either opentick or perhaps the quote stream of whichever automated broker I go with. My first question for everyone is does anyone know how reliable opentick's intraday quote stream is? I think it's straight from the stock exchanges, right??? Then again, if the automated broker I go with has a reliable quote stream I might as well use theirs since I'll have to interface with their systems when I make an automated trade anyway. Can anyone recommend an automated broker with reliable intraday quotes? I hear interactive broker is supposed to be good, do you agree? Lastly, all the trades I want to make are going to be shorts and I'll probably be wanting to short a lot of shares (~1000) at a time. Is this going to be a problem for the automated traders to fill? My impression is they tend to have much fewer shares available for shorting??? Anyone know first hand which interactive brokers have a good supply of shares? I'm with fidelity now, which of course has a ton of shares available for shorting, but can't be automated. I'd really appreciate any thoughts people have since I don't have much experience with this. Thanks. - Chad