Depends. * If you want reliable T&S - IB is out. * If you do tick charts, IB is out. Otherwise it is fine.
Use common sense. The previous poster is right... EXCEPT when you have ANY analysis running that relies on per tick resolution. Note that this not necessarily is uncommon - Range charts (rare), but mostly Tick charts or Volume charts simply NEED per tick data input or they are screwed. Not that important when you have large ones (4000 ticks), but if you run 89 tick charts, the aggregation CAN skew the charts. Btw., you guys wont believe how much data runs through an exchange I am starting recording complete exchange feeds and it is tremendous.
i've been sim trading the 6E - Euro fx and in the listed thread made a comparison between trading the fx eurusd vs 6E during the previous NFP release, often having the most volatile trading release reactions 'news trading' is very attractive to some since there can be large price moves if you can get your trade on, something that's very difficult trading via an fx broker filtered ticks not only have a visual difference and apparent slow/fast difference there's also a real difference when trading and i wonder if IB's feed and order entry sw would result in differences in fills vs NTZF 10 tick chart from thread attached http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=172655
That is pretty darn close to what I pay with Zen/Ninja for all contracts as well - so there apparently isn't any significant cost difference between the two setups.
Today has seemed particularly bad with the zf/nt set-up (between the 10am news and 10:30a). Lots of pauses, although I did get filled on some standing orders, while the pauses were happening. I'm thinking it is a combination of my CPU and video cards?
Video hard hardly. Ninja does not a lot that requires video power those days. VIdeo cards are really fast. CPU most likely, plus RAM maybe.