Iâm considering getting tradestation and have been analyzing the cost. If you just lease the software and use your own broker it costs between $300 and $420/month depending upon what you have and whether your classified as a professional or not. If you get the software and trade through Tradestation Securities at first glance it seems to be a lot cheaper. But if you are trading futures, the real cost seems to be in the Data fees. Each exchange costs approximately $60/month in data fees, so if your trading all of the 5 major US exchanges (CBOT, CME, COMEX, ICE, NYMEX) thatâs going to cost you $300/month. Additionally it appears that the commissions are approximately $0.35/side more expensive than say Interactive Brokers. With all 5 exchanges and 200 round turns/month this equates to about $440/month more than IB. So it seems that the two options cost almost the same. So are there any obvious advantages/disadvantages of using Tradestation with IB or Tradestation Securities (or any other broker) that could tip the balance? Is there anything obvious I am missing?
No, you are not missing anything. IF you do indeed need all futures exchanges, you are screwed with TS. Consider: iqfeed if you are okay using one of the brokers mentioned and use one of the software packages mentioned + want to / okay managing your own data. Interactive Brokers isn't an option Use eSignal if you don't want to bother saving your own data. Prices are steeper than iqfeed. Can use Interactive Brokers. Even cheaper is kinetick. NinjaTrader provides data & charting - with a good selection of brokers, including Interactive Brokers. Need to pay ransom fees to TT if you use NT dom.