[smuhr]

Good morning,

I am new to NT and I do not now which broker is the best for trading Stock, Futures & FX with automated System.

I have read that IB is not really good for Data Feed and Historical Data
Mirus & AMP Futures does not allow you to trade stocks
Has MB Trading a good Data Feed & Historical Data ?

Thank you for your advice,
Steven

[sevensa]

Originally Posted by smuhr »

Good morning,

I am new to NT and I do not now which broker is the best for trading Stock, Futures & FX with automated System.

I have read that IB is not really good for Data Feed and Historical Data
Mirus & AMP Futures does not allow you to trade stocks
Has MB Trading a good Data Feed & Historical Data ?

Thank you for your advice,
Steven

What is bad about IB's datafeed? I've been using it for years and don't have any issues with it with my type of trading.

Are you really going to trade stocks, forex and futures? Do you know what data you need, tick level, minute, daily? Have you found a reliable method and edge yet? If not, you probably should concentrate on that first and figure out what and how you really want to trade before you try to find the "best" broker. If you are learning to drive, you will not go and buy full and top of the line racing gear and a Ferrari up front, but just something cheap to start of with to get used to driving.

Remember a broker is typically just a broker and not a datafeed provider, with tradestation probably the exception. Many brokers do provide a feed, but their main business is to be a broker first. The same goes for data providers. Their main business is to provide a datafeed and not brokerage services.

Asking questions like what is best, sound logical but really isn't as simple to answer. What is best is what will fit your requirements the best. You need to know exactly what your requirements are before you can decide what is best for them.

[rcossey73]

I am not sure if there is a broker out there that is going to fit your needs completely. Maybe Tradestation would be a better fit?

But I wanted to help explain the possible concerns with IB data.

IB does not send tick by tick data, they aggregate it and send it every 250ms (I think that is still the number). There are really only 2 concerns with this. I no longer use IB, but for other reasons and I never really had issues with their data...

1) Some people feel aggregated data is a disadvantage since other data providers send tick by tick. It is possible to not get all ticks as electronic markets are extremely fast and many trades can happen in a 250ms window.

2) The internet is not a guaranteed service so you could lose packets at times, if you lose a data packet from IB you are losing 250ms worth of data and not just one tick. Also along these same lines, if IB's servers are under stress like after FOMC announcements then the server may inadvertently skip one or more data cycles. This is likely to also be the case for a tick by tick data provider, but in that case you will lose a couple ticks, instead of 250ms worth(may still only be a couple ticks)!

I have no direct experience with MB Trading, but I would suspect they also aggregate data.

I also know when I was using IB with NT there was an issue that if TWS stopped receiving data NT would not know and you could think everything was fine when in reality the market just passed you by...

[Tams]

Originally Posted by rcossey73 »

...
But I wanted to help explain the possible concerns with IB data.

IB does not send tick by tick data, they aggregate it and send it every 250ms (I think that is still the number). There are really only 2 concerns with this. I no longer use IB, but for other reasons and I never really had issues with their data...
...

this is a very common misconception... let me explain and maybe you can see the differences.

1. All data suppliers aggregate their data, inlcuding eSignal. (read the fine print)

2. The data from the exchanges can be aggregated !!! e.g. read the CME fine print.
i.e. you had aggregated data to begin with, what difference does it make if the data supplier also aggregates the data?

3. IB aggregates the data to the MAXIMUM of 250ms.
i.e. if there were 10 ticks in a second,
you could get as many as 10 packets of quotes,
or you could get as little as 4 packets of quotes,
or anything in between,
...but not less than 4.
250ms is the max latency, not the given.

4. ALL broker quotes are aggregated, some aggregate more than 250ms.
i.e. IB's data is not any worse than your "other" alternatives.
IB got more publicity, because misinformation gets pass on faster than facts.


HTH

[Tams]

Originally Posted by rcossey73 »

...I also know when I was using IB with NT there was an issue that if TWS stopped receiving data NT would not know and you could think everything was fine when in reality the market just passed you by...

TWS has audio alarms that alert you if the internet connection is broken.
You set it under the Configuration menu.

[rcossey73]

Originally Posted by Tams »

TWS has audio alarms that alert you if the internet connection is broken.
You set it under the Configuration menu.

I am not sure how you would code this into an automated system, if possible then that shouldn't be a concern then...

On the data aggregation, I think you are really splitting hairs there. I wasn't saying it was better or worse than any other provider. I was only trying to explain what I have heard as concerns.. Either way it was never an issue with me and very seldom has a brokers data feed not been good enough for me.

[sevensa]

Originally Posted by rcossey73 »

I am not sure how you would code this into an automated system, if possible then that shouldn't be a concern then...
.

I am not sure how this is an IB issue? Isn't this is an issue/concern for any automated system with any broker to know when you lose internet connection?

[Tams]

Originally Posted by rcossey73 »

...
On the data aggregation, I think you are really splitting hairs there. I wasn't saying it was better or worse than any other provider. I was only trying to explain what I have heard as concerns.. Either way it was never an issue with me and very seldom has a brokers data feed not been good enough for me.

I think you are splitting hair on what I said...

read my signature line, and read my post again, and see if I have contra'ed any of the things you mentioned above.