Thanks. Let me comment on this one point. In scalping a few ticks at a time, especially fast pace 1 min chart, a time lag of a few sec. after I clicked buy/sell was a big deal. Often by the time the sim filled the order, the move was over and instead of catching an upswing price was already on a down swing. It was so bad during opening that I abandoned trading right after opening even though opening imbalance was often very juicy. I really don't know if it is the TOS sim, or Schwab market feed or my internet. Schwab tech support was no help. I will have to go live to find out if it is TOS sim or TOS. I know when I was using Schwab SSE there were no significant lags - even in realtime trades. But SSE is no longer available so I can't go back.
The problem is with TOS: It just not have a fast accurate quote system when the action is fast it cannot keep up then it adjusts to current with a big skip. I have compared Rithmic, Sierra Charts and TOS simultaneously and TOS. With Sierra, you know the exact price you are going to get when you press the button, With TOS you have no idea. I have traded AAPL and TSLA live on TOS in small quantities so you will do fine with it for what you are trying to do. Just understand its deficiencies. But then again after rereading your post --- you are trading very quick moves so it might just screw up your whole process.
One more thing, I assume you do know with TOS you can set up a one click small trading box to keep on top of your chart and move it around with the mouse so at least one click sets the process in motion.
No, I didn't know that. What I did was set up and displayed the Active Trader (DOM) window side by side with the charts and it has a one click feature with # of shares, exit and stop loss all predetermined.
Here is what it looks like. You can resize it, have more than one stock or a separate box for other stocks, pin it so it is always on top of whatever chart you are looking at, change the quantity or symbol in the box, etc. Easy to set it up and I can describe the process if you are interested. If you are satisfied with what you are doing then keep doing it.
The only way to find out: 1. Trade live. 2. Open an account with another brokerage, compare trading side by side. Will do #1 first.
I have found Lightspeed that Bob M. works for and posts a lot here to be very very quick and accurate but last time I checked they still are not commission free.