[dalby]

I have recently acquired a TS account, and also have IB and AMTD

i had heard previously, and now have it confirmed by my own experience, that IB "chunks" (aggregates) their ticks in a fast moving market. TS does not.

This is clear when watching TS time/sales vs. IB's

In IB's you will often see orders for (for example) 35 contracts, whereas in TS you will see 5 5 3 10 6 6 in other words the exact fills that went through

i have personally seen my orders go through on IB's tape (buy 6 lots on the bid, it shows up on tape, etc.), but it appears that IB aggregates ticks when the market starts moving quickly.

this means that tick data as well as delta data (trades on ask - trades on bid) is inaccurate with IB feed.

i was using marketdelta with IB and was getting the impression that the data was bogus, and have now confirmed it by comparing to TS.

don't get me wrong. i love IB for what it is - cheap commissions, lots of datafeeds w/o additional fees, etc. but for realtime tape watching and delta comparisons, it is not suitable