Hi, I have accounts with TOS, Scottrade and Optionsexpress. I have just opened an account with IB to trade occasionally Forex and Interest Rate futures. 2 quick questions. 1. Apart from Forex all of the data is not free. Is that right? I have to pay for London stock prices, US stock prices, Liffe etc? 2. I did a couple of forex trades yesterday. The opening trade nor subsequent trades appeared in my portfolio tab at the top of page. Do i have to activate this feature? Thanks
US Stock and futures data is free with minimum trading activity. I believe there is a charge for foreign exchanges.
Thats strange. I cant see the data for equities or futures unless I pay but forex is free. No mention of min charge at all. ant say i am over impressed so far with them.
It really isn't strange at all. It only seems that way because you didn't read IB's explanations on its website. IB has to compensate some exchanges, but not others, for providing you with data. Forex executions are generated exclusively by IB and its market makers, so that there are no data fees for forex. If you go with a different broker providing "free" data, you will pay far more for commissions and/or inferior execution prices, so that the data will not be "free". Brokers who rip you off will always be willing to give back a tiny portion of the stolen funds, in the form of little freebies.