"Price data accuracy" is not what is important it is "Price data real-time accuracy" what counts...in this respects an accurate real-time Best-Bid and Best-Ask is more valuable to have than a Last-Trade-print (which is already history {trade is done in the past: but Bid/Ask is the next thing in future}). Streaming-date providers like eSignal, gives you Last-trade-prints in history...as OldTrader says: this history is in milli-secs when the market is not moving. but during news events we are talking about 10 or more FULL seconds (I even have seen a nearly one minute lag, compared to IB {I have both running side by side}). Snapshot-data providers like IB (and X-trader) gives you the CURRENT best-bid, best-ask, and last-Trade..each and every 1/3 second without any Lag. just every 1/3 second you get the current Market situation, which is invaluable during moments when it REALLY counts: during times that market moves highly volatile. I think each trader need both providers, but for different things. Charting and TA you do with a Streaming-provider. and trading you do with a Snapshot-provider......and how knows..one day some software will integrate best of both worlds ;-)
No, actually, neither one of your examples say what you claim they say. Neither one of them contains anything to suggest that the particular profiled high-frequency traders need every single tick. Your second example, furthermore, is about foreign exchange trading, for which is there is no such thing as a tick-by-tick data feed. No such thing exists for FX trading, because FX trading does not occur in centralized marketplaces generating a complete datafeed of ticks, and is instead conducted in a decentralized fashion all over the world by innumerable markets and dealers. This is also why there is no such thing as an accurate rea-time volume feed for FX trading. I agree with everything Oldtrader said in this thread, except for minor adjustments to his derogatory comments about people who need every tick. I think we should admit that a very small minority of successful trading strategies may, in fact, need every single tick, and there is nothing wrong with such a strategy, but it is the exception to the rule. The vast majority of traders have no need for every single tick in real-time. Those who claim that every single tick is needed have not been able to provide one single example of a successful trader or trading strategy needing every single tick, and the two examples they claimed to provide actually support the opposite conclusion. Fairness to Interactive Brokers requires recognition that although IB does not provide every single tick, recent modifications to its datafeed now do include every single high and low tick. Charts constructed from IB's shapshot data will therefore contain all highs and lows. I believe that many of the voices on EliteTrader, trying to persuade us that IB's data are "inferior", are actually IB's inferior competitors trying to drum up business by preying upon the ignorance of newbie traders. I resent this campaign of deception because I think it is harmful to IB, and therefore to IB customers like myself, who appreciate the value offered by IB.
I have trouble defending IB because all good things come to an end with too much publicity. Since I suspect osorico came after me a bit because he had an agenda. let me do a little agenda bashing. And I do bash esignal - it is little more than a toy feed. Like the other trader said. Esignal is for charting not trading.
Here's is the basis of MY agenda jem... Not once have **I** mentioned ANY third-party data provider or competing brokerage by name. It is just fascinating to me...the loyalty through good and bad, IB customers have. My spouse of 20 years doesn't let me rest on my laurels, and I don't let her rest on hers. I certainly won't let my broker. But, it works for IB customers, good for them. Osorico
To this end, will Buttontrader support third party datafeed and brokers? Ninjatrader, for example is already on that path as being datafeed and broker independent. PS, would you consider setting up a BT user forum so users can search and ask and answer questions about BT there?
Third datafeed providers: yes (because of the need for accurate Times&Sales, something IB sadly does not offer). Other Brokers?...not on sort notice, because reliability and specialisation and support, is more important. {Other questions: please in the forum, pointed in the previous post}
In the end it all depends what you need. I pressed IB with help from people on this board to generate their 5 second bars (not how I'd originally envisaged it) and I now use Sierra Chart to combine 5 second bars (for accuracy) with live data (for responsiveness) to create "TrueLive" data for trading. But I don't trade time and sales. Nor do I actually care about absolute volume numbers or tick numbers being 100%. I just care about them being the same as when I developed/tested/modified my strategy. If they're the same it doesn't matter that an esignal user who did what I do might use a 30 tick chart and I might use a 21 tick ... all that matters is can you achieve what you want consistently? And the great thing about IB's snapshot and 5 second datafeeds is that there is as near to NO lag in the data as it seems possible to get. If it doesn't work for someone though then they should experiment with other feeds until they find what does.
Correct!...using snapshot and 5 secs-RealTimeBars together, it gives, for nearly all tools, all what is needed. (Only for "TapeReading" tools you will need accurate T&S).