It has been some while but the problem hasn't been fixed yet. Recently I have some chats about my issues regarding IB data and subscription. For some reasons I don't want to use their own market data. Instead I would use my third-party data vendor. I am very certain this won't affect my trading. The staff replied but their answers didn't make sense. The doubts I raised are as follows: Steve_IB said: Sorry but if IB does prefer to offer all data for free to stimulate client's trading volume, why don't you act now? What stop you from doing it? What is the reason behind? Is it because IB thinks making money from datafeed subscription is better than making money from commissions? You should be frank about that. By the way only market data in US markets has a waiver. Why don't you consider to offer waivers for non-US markets too, if IB does want to encourage customers to do more trades? def said: As to the first part, if you read the table carefully, it reads "Maximum $200 per device". Why did you skip the word "maximum" in your replies? It is the maximum only. That means it can charge less. Of course the bigger the brokerage, the easier you get a deeper discount from the exchange. Now you are charging us the maximum, that is $200, and there is no waiver or discounts unlike the US markets. In other words, you always need to pay for $200 no matter how heavy you trade. As to the second part, it is silly to assume that a company who charges less than $200 is taking a loss. A business is to make money. A business is not a charity. If it didn't make any money, how could it survive? But why do you choose to warn me (or rather remind me to subscribe data) EVERY SINGLE TIME I send or modify an order? Why do you think it is appropriate to keep warning us every time? Don't you think one or two times only are more than enough? Other brokers allow me to trade without subscribing market data (of course they don't bombard you like mad either), meaning that they are not doing it obligatorily. All other messages can be suppressed through the Global Configurations. Why does IB intentionally leave this out? There must be some reasons why IB decides to have persistent popups to remind us when they don't subscribe your data. That's completely beyond me. I will be bombarded with the popups making me impossible to trade now if I don't subscribe that market data before I trade Rather than fixing the problem now, why do you require me to post a feature request and vote in order to disable the pop-up window? It doesn't make sense. It is called "Features Poll". This request is not a feature. This is a report of a bug or a design flaw which should be fixed as soon as possible. Unless IB thinks this is actually a "feature" by design, why doesn't IB take action and fix it now? We can suppress all other popups and messages except the datafeed subscription reminder. It is hard to believe IB can't do it due to technical constraints. Saying this only let us know they actually want to keep the reminder for their own reasons. If I understand the mechanism correctly, I need to persuade as many people as possibe to vote this poll up to the top of the list before IB takes the initiative to fix it. Why does IB unnecessarily add some barriers before a bug can be fixed? What stops you from fixing that minor problem now?
On one hand, IB says they actually want to offer data for free because they want us to trade more. On the other hand, IB denies to fix the popup and insists that a persistent popup is necessary in this case. Why do you want to keep reminding us to subscribe market data if you say you don't mind whether we subscribe your market data at all. Isn't that a bit of a contradiction? It is beyond me why IB doesn't want to let us to suppress that popup (to fix that bug/flaw). Everything becomes explanable if we assume IB has an interest in datafeed subscription. After all data subscription itself isn't a big deal. But the way how it does business is. Although IB pretends that it doesn't care, it actually engages in unfair competition by creating a non-suppressable and persistent popup. This makes us impossible to trade without subscribing their own data. IB elminiates all the choices for their own benefits. If IB lies on you and likes to use dirty practices for their own benefits, it is not a good broker to stay. Who knows if IB has other dirty practices to rip me off? Judging from the replies and the above, I don't think it is a reliable broker. The above suggests that IB is a brokerage which may even do something to hurt customers' benefits for their own. Any IB staff, please free feel to clarify and proves me wrong. Be frank and explain your real causes so it will clear my doubts. Thank you.
IB should have an setting option to get rid of the popup because one should not be forced to use their data. That being said, the current workaround is to pay the data feed until the setting option is implemented. Good Luck!
Yes it is very obvious IB should make such an option available. What makes me wonder is how they responded - IB doesn't see the point of it and decides not to fix it. Although they don't expressly refuse, you can feel that according to what they said and the sound of it. This is what makes me wonder. Why doesn't IB want to fix it? This is just a small request. We can get rid of all other popups. Why not this one too? Why does IB intentionally leave it out? What is its purpose? The workaround is okay but I feel uneasy with a broker when it needs to use such a cheap approach to get more money from its customers. You even don't know how many dirty tricks are coming along the road.
I assume they do that so some imbecile wont complain when they get f****ked on a bad price entry. Whaddya thing?
That is easy. Just add this line on the popup, in bold and red if you like: Warning!! You may get bad price entry if you don't subscribe my datafeed. Then let the users pick their own choices. If they want to ignore your warning, so be it. By the way I really don't understand why we will get bad price entries if we don't subscribe the market data. The quotes are centralized. Every data vendor are quoting the same price. The point is you should pick a reliable and fast data vendor, so the quotes won't be delayed for a second or so. Other than that, I don't see why I can get a bad price if I don't subscribe it. Perhaps this is something only occurs in US markets. Could you explain that bit?
Over 40 posts just whining and complaining about IB, why don't you just PAY the fucking fee like everyone else ... or else leave IB and shut up ... since you seem te be staying Ib must not be that bad ...
and for what it's worth, when I was trading 10 years ago, I used to pay over 10.000 usd a year just to get real-life data ! my broker didn't provide at all.
When I started trading, I could only put in market orders and the spreads were $5 on every stock. My commissions were $1,000 a side (not to mention the SEC fees) plus I had to drive 10 miles through the snow to give my order to my broker.