I am currently with Mirus/Zenfire (using NinjaTrader). I have an automated strategy and would like to lower commissions and lower latency. I am thinking leasing a seat on CME (how much $$ ?) will lower commissions and co-locating (how much $$ ?) will lower latency. Can somebody point me in the right direction for both/either? Any brokers/FCMs for one stop shop? Thanks in advance.
Can't help with the co-location stuff but lease prices are here: http://www.cmegroup.com/company/membership/membership-pricing.html#pricingType=1 . Just go to the window and switch from member prices to lease prices. Go here,http://www.cmegroup.com/company/membership/types-of-membership.html , to find out which seat you need to lease.
You're going to have to switch platforms. The expense to do it properly in terms of dedicated lines and the server are likely prohibitive. I know guys in the CME building who get picked off, BTW.
I'd say you'd probably be paying at least 6k per month to do this. 10k doesn't even seem like a far off number to me. Leave hft to the big boys.
you could start by trying your strategy on TT ASE on a firm provided server (in aurora). see if that is sufficient speed improvement. advantage, crossland and shatkin can all do this and i'm sure there are plenty others. that'll cost you about $1850/mo. you're commissions may be lower at one of these places too. you can do a quick calculation based on your volume to determine whether or not a lease makes sense. also look into a ECM at CME, then you wouldn't need to lease.
Has something changed? This is what I got off the CME site itself: CME Rule 106R ECM âVolume Incentive Program (CME ECM-W) have a waiver of the membership holding requirement (through 12/31/08) but it must meet certain volume trading requirements on a quarterly basis (i.e. it must trade an average of 50 contracts (i.e. sides) per business day for the quarter). Volume and participation is evaluated on a quarterly basis. Am I just reading it wrong?
i just realized that i assumed you were running a spread strategy. not sure why i did that. if you are, then TT ASE may help - your spreads reside at the co-located server, you're outrights reside locally on your desktop. otherwise, you'd be better off co-locating your own server and remoting into it. in this case you can run whatever software you want but i would think that TT has faster gateways than ninja. this option will be more pricey, with a start-up cost of buying the server then monthly hosting fees. guavatech would be able to price it out, as would 7-ticks/interactive data.
"Am I just reading it wrong?" no, you're not reading it wrong. the OP could look into it though and see if he/she meets the requirements.
Well the way I am reading it, the ability to waive buying/leasing a seat ended in 2008. That is why I'm confused about it now.