what about cqg front end (w/o charts that is). That alone is reasonably priced. Doesn't hurt to have two brokers on different machines, so Ninja or IB would make sense for charts and backup broker. It' s quality and won't break the bank? TT is available from Velocity on a per trade basis. You would have to trade quantity for their slightly higher commissions to make much difference. Or find desk space at a brokerage, especially if you are in NY or Chicago. I think speed will be increased dramatically. That is a bit more costly though. Or you could place orders 2 hours before the market opens. I know traders who do that.
thanks, i will look into the cqg bit, thought that was data only and not execution. I am not near those cities and trade too dynamic a method to place orders that early, though I assume they often cancel them if things aren't going as planned at this point i think ninja is out, a little more bloat than i need (which in theory only slows the app down), and i don't require charts; though they would be nice backup. i discovered another option in tranact's in house program AT, seems very fast and very simple. no platform fee thru infinity either. so now it looks like AT vs photon.