You think that's bad... Have you priced out a bed recently? Yes, a bed, a fuck!ng bed, man! http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/garden/12mattresses.html?pagewanted=all
We all laugh or roll our eyes at ostentatious things or options...but if we could afford it...we would buy it in a heartbeat. (if you're rich...then automatically buy the best, w/o blinking an eye)
I dream of starting a luxury goods brand, literally pricing some accessories or women's products at 100x the norm, perdy packaging, just enough marketing to be seen... Let the orders flow in.
Is Sierra Chart okay instead of Stage 5? Try it out - they have free trials. $24 or less a month for the platform TICK TRIN etc. is free Then see if you can get CME data from your broker. AMP Futures is charging only $15 / mo. Or you can get that data for about $50 / mo. from Sierra Chart as well
ICE does not offer a cheaper way of getting data for an S&P 500 mini contract, only CME sells data for the S&P 500 mini contract, therefore CME has a monopoly on that data. I don't see why deep discount brokerages can't cover the charges of CME and CQG-type data, most don't need the fastest data, Thinkorswim's futures data is free to customers (even 0 balance in account) and it's nearly as good as CQG on a slower market like the ES.
But they do provide cheap data. Not exactly zero always, but pretty close IB: no data fee for monthly $30 commission. A few dollars here & there for the rest of what you need AMP: $15 a month for data & exchange fee Deep Discount Trading: About $15 - $20 IIRC Tradestation data: Bit more, but not much And yes, TOS as you mentioned: $0 a month
Depends on where you live in the world. In Montreal, CQG blows away Thinkorswim for data on CME, ICE involving speed and accuracy...not sure about the other stuff they sell. In contrast, I know someone in Dallas that say the speed and accuracy are compatible between the two but Bloomberg beats them both. Whereas in Seattle, CQG beats Bloomberg on speed. Further, do not underestimate the influence of your ISP as the hub between you and your data vendor. I've seen speed and data packets lost via the ISP all by itself. Anyways, this is more of an issue (speed) for those that are scalping or doing algo stuff. Not an issue for normal day trading, swing trading, position trading. In fact, its very common for profitable traders in a specific trading instrument to relocate (move) closer to the exchange of their trading instrument. I know a few guys out of New York that relocated to Asia to be closer to the markets there that they are very profitable in. I also know a few traders out of Europe that relocated to Chicago because they're profitable in the CME products...the only stuff they trade. The above only an issue for those trading for a living that are willing to relocate and when speed is a big concern in their trading.
I don't consider it expensive, considering the returns. What I do consider expensive are the POS family celphone bills, considering I hate those darn things.