Which one should I choose as my broker. I like IB, and I've seen many positive comments on this site about them, but it seems that you need to get a different quotes provider, and that doesn't come cheap. On the other hand I like Tradestation because you get an integrated environment (it's true, you pay the data fee), and you can backtest your strategies. So, what do you think, which one should I choose?
Depends on what kind of trading you're going to do. If you're going make 1 or 2 trades a month, you might as well go with TR6. If you're going to do 10 trades a day, you need to find the cheapest commissions possible. Hope this helps.
I want to do some swing trading and the occasional scalping, so the commission is important, but I also want to be able to backtest my strategies, and run some real-time filters to find opportunities. I plan to start low, with no more than 200 shares a trade, and increase the amount as I gather some experience.
Okay...then what I would suggest is you purchase a stand alone version of Tradestation (they sell them occasionally on Ebay) then hook up to eSignal using a program called "Dynastore" (you can find more info about dynastore on eSignals' web site). If you can't find tradestation, you can try Metastock Real/Time. I'm not familiar with metastock, but seems like someone told me you could back-test with it, and it's also compatible with eSignal. Then use a broker like IB to execute your trades. BTW...you can also get metastock on Ebay and save several hundred dollars off retail.
No problem... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2030677516 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2031117383 www.dynastoresoftware.com/Dynastore/index.asp
A question about MetaStock: They offer a monthly subscription for MetaStock 7.2 and Reuters DataLink, for $59. I assume that this is not realtime data. They also have MetaStock Pro 7.2 for QCharts - Subscription for $199. I guess this is the realtime version. Am I right? Or, to put it in a different way, what is the difference between MetaStock 7.2 and MetaStock Pro 7.2?
Right, the cheap one is going to be for EOD (end of day) data. If you were to buy the Metastock Pro 7.2 seperately, I believe real time data from eSignal would run about $125 a month.
Tradestation does not not do options except by telephone order and it sucks. If you do equity options you can't do tradestation.