Computer Associates' has a point with that persistent commercial. If we were to realistically stop and account for our significant investment in trading software, lease fees and so forth, we would be surprised to notice that on (estimated) average over $600 monthly or $7,200 yearly. by contrast, one of the most robust systems, Esignal with all its extentions and tie-ins to a number of broker execution platforms is only $395 monthly. by contrast, RealTick with its custom indicators and imbalance indicators and multi-charting/multi-timeframe capabilities is equally priced at/around $395 monthly. Whether or not your volume allows for reimbursement for monthly fees, being charged $400 monthly as well as other custom market-data-vendor fees also applies to this calculation... What were your thoughts?
For our own systems we use proprietary systems developed in- house rather than depending heavily upon third party products. Over time this is a much cheaper alternative (for us) and represents a lower risk. Over time my per seat cost is much lower than these stated numbers.
...I laugh everytime I see that commercial. I got laid off from a high-tech startup almost 2 years ago and that prompted my journey into full-time trading and being more involved in the back-office operations of proprietary trading. I spent 13 years working for Xerox, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems and Silicon Graphics (SGI) back in the day....all in sales and marketing...you would not believe HOW many salespeople were very similar to that guy. rttrader
Real Tick costs me $275/month without rebates. I actually pay $0 because I have over 50 trades a month. I use TNT.
My thought is that you've seriously overestimated the monthly cost of software and datafeed for the majority of traders by at least 200% and probably more like 3-400%.
per month, and that includes all equity exachanges, Level-II quotes, and E-minis. I agree with Arch, you have SEVERELY over-estimated software costs.