Hi all, I am still new to trading and i have a few queries i would like to ask which will help me decide on the best account settings with IB. It would be very much appreciated if someone can fill me in on: 1) Pro Market Data Bundle vs Non-Pro I am a Non-Pro but i would like to know why the difference in pricing? Is it only because someone is considered profesional while the other is not? or does the Pro-Guys who pay more money get access to more in-depth data than the Non-Pro Guys who pay less? 2) I am not quite satisfied with the charting / indicators tools offered by TWS (currently trying the demo features) What is the best charting tool software that can be used as a third party application and accept live data feed from IB? I am looking for something good and economical (cheap). I have read about quoteTracker, are you guys satisfied with it? Is it good enough to carry out most or all of your technical analysis with clarity and ease or do you recommend something else? I've also read that with IB you can only get limited data that can fill a few days in a chart on Quotetracker. So again i have to look for a reliable live data feeds to subscribe to which will feed the charts with enough data that goes back to weeks and months...etc; do you know of a good one?
The data feeds are the same. The exchanges give a discount to non-pros. If you want better charts, there not free or cheap. E-signal is worth a look when your ready to pay for better tools.
Exactly! It's simple price differentiation. Same as with airlines giving students lower price or free right to change a ticket. If the main thing you want from charting is indicators, QuoteTracker is great (just make sure to get it now because Ameritrade are withdrawing support for it). NinjaTrader is free and has lots of indicators too. AmiBroker is cheap (make sure to get a trial first to see if it does what you need.)
Thanks alot; that was very helpful. I will have to further study the charting platforms and try a few demos of what you all proposed... Few more questions related to IB account setup: 1) When going through the costs section in the "Required Minimums" section; i stumbled across the required minimums / connection minimums. There is the VPN (TWS, API, CTCI), the Internet; gateway client for CTCI (TWS, API, CTCI), the extranet and the dedicated lease also TWS, API, and CTCI along with all the different pricings. Would you please (briefly) shed some light on the differences, and provide me with your best advice on which connection minimum would be suitable and enough for my tradings in your experience. 2) Which Mobile Platform Solution do you recommend using on an iphone, the mobile trader or the mobile TWS for IOS?
You are welcome. If you want to try more platfoms, NeoTicker and MultiCharts would be good choices (though they are not as cheap). If you tilt towards trading futures as opposed to equities, have a look at ButtonTrader. It's not a charting but rather order entry platform... but for a short-term futures trader it offers much more than TWS. (Also trial on ButtonTrader was 6 months the last time I looked.) It would be wise to consider cost as a decisive factor. If you want to use "extranet", add to the cost $1,000 per month or more paid to your internet service provider. Even if you have substantial money to back up your interest in trading, I would recommend to start small. Further there is no point in paying for an upmarket solution (such as extranet or FIX gateway) unless it's just a small part of trading profits. So, TWS with an API via Internet is the best choice to start with. TWS for iPhone is probably better as long as it does everything you need. (I understand the Web platform offers somewhat wider choice of order types.) One fact that is not widely advertised is you can get a second login with an IB account. So, you can log on via your mobile phone without logging off TWS on a desktop. You may have to pay extra if you want real-time market data on both at the same time. However, even without market data it's still a good choice if you just want to see profit-and-loss and whether any of your stop orders got triggerred.