I was asked to help create a list of quote options/prices, benefits/dreawbacks for TT members to make educated decisions from.

If you would help out with your personal experiences/preferences, it would be greatly appreciated.


I currently use:
I mainly trade:
It costs:
Benefits:
Drawbacks:
I rate it (out of 5):

I have also used:
For trading:
It costs:
Benefits:
Drawbacks:
I rate it (out of 5):




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I currently use:eSignal & Metastock Pro (archived data)
I mainly trade:ES + SP full contract + mutual funds
It costs: ~$75/mo
Benefits: Reliability, ease of operation
Drawbacks:None, for me
I rate it (out of 5):~5.


Haven't used other for more than 10 years.

I currently use:Interactive Brokers
I mainly trade: ES, ER2, YM, DAX, etc, sometimes ETFs and fast moving stocks
It costs: Free for US, marginal for DTB, LIFFE etc
Benefits: Fast (doesn't lag)
Drawbacks: None
I rate it (out of 5): 4

Never needed anything else

*must be an Interactive Broker client

I currently use: Quote.com LiveCharts
I mainly trade: e-mini
It costs: $20/mo + exchange fees ($20-$30))
Benefits: cheap
Drawbacks: site goes down, data errors, undependable
I rate it (out of 5): 2


I currently use: StockCharts Extra
I mainly trade: stocks
It costs: $19/mo (Realtime data is an additonal; $10)
Benefits: simple, cost-effective, stock scanning
Drawbacks: pretty generic offerings. Site can be confusing
I rate it (out of 5): 4

I currently use: Qcharts from quote.com (since 1999...don't know why I haven't switched).
I mainly trade: Stocks, some futures
It costs: $80-$90/month (lots more for exchange fees, but that's from the exchanges)
Benefits: I can see a lot of info across 3 monitors. A decent amount of
options.
Drawbacks: Crashes sometimes, and data can be slow on some servers.
I rate it (out of 5): 3

D

I currently use: TradeStation 8.0
I mainly trade: index options, index futures, etf's
It costs: approx. $100 per month including all exchange fees UNLESS you meet their brokerage volume requirements which can save you approximatel $60 per month
Benefits: Integrates systems development and backtesting capabilities with solid data feed
Drawbacks: No complaints, much better than what I used to use and a good deal price wise.
I rate it (out of 5): 4.5

I have also used:
For trading: Quote.com, ESignal, DTN IQ
It costs: Quote.com was roughly $150 per month, ESignal $200, DTN IQ $110 (with exchange fees)
Benefits: Quote.com had the best charts (graphically), ESignal had better data, DTN IQ was used as a data feed for third party platform
Drawbacks: Quote.com had constant data feed problems, ESignal was just cumbersome, DTN IQ wasn't much of a platform if not used for a third party data feed
I rate it (out of 5):
Quote.com (3.5)
ESignal(3)
DTN IQ(2.5)

You asked for quote system. For charts, I use Ensign Software at $39 a month. Live datafeed from IB, backfilled for free using IQ feed.

I currently use: eSignal and IB TWS
I mainly trade: ES and ER2
It costs: $115/mo (eSignal) TWS free
Benefits: eSignal allows the programs I use to interact with there charts, using their programming language.

Drawbacks: (eSignal) I think it's too expensive, especially given Tradestations now cheaper rates (and better data) if only a very few contracts are traded monthly. I have yet to switch to Tradestation given the possible learning curve of their programming language. On 3 ocassions recently eSignals charts have lagged IB's quotes by anywhere from 10 secomds to 2 minutes. A nightmare. IB TWS. I love IB, but there TWS is a dangerous platform. It is VERY EASY to enter trades incorrectly, buy when you meant to sell, etc. They have made some improvements to it, but this is a very twitchy platform.


I rate it (out of 5): eSignal 3 IB TWS 3

I have also used: Stockicharts Extra
For trading: For market overview stuff, ratio charts, stocks, etc
It costs: $400+ /yr
Benefits: After many years I'm very familiar with it, and all my continuous charts are stored there.
Drawbacks: It is too expensive for what they offer. It's "beta" upgrade in my opinion is a joke, designed to last as long as possible to keep people resubscribing. It's been down a lot. I think I'm through with them finally when my subscription expires.
I rate it (out of 5): 2

I currently use: IB's TWS data feed
I mainly trade: e-mini Russell 2000 and e-mini S&P 400 futures
It costs: FREE
Benefits: quick, reliable, FREE (no exchange fees)
Drawbacks: limit of 100 simultaneous tickers, charts are made using native java charts which are pretty awful
I rate it (out of 5): 5

I currently use: Pinnacle Data EOD backadjusted futures data
I mainly trade: CME currency futures, other commodities
It costs: $99 to get the data initially then updates are $15 a month (cheaper if paid yearly)
Benefits: easy updates, able to use data for testing trading systems back to the 1970s
Drawbacks: none I've found so far
I rate it (out of 5): 5

I currently use: Tradestation data feed
I mainly trade: e-mini Russell 2000 and e-mini S&P 400 futures
It costs: $100 unless you trade 10 or more round trip futures a month (pretty easy to do) + exchange fees
Benefits: very powerful platform, built-in automated system trading
Drawbacks: cannot view historical intraday data without paying exchange fees, learning curve for easylanguage (if you want to automate system testing -- for charting it's pretty simple), backadjusted futures data is not ratio adjusted so prices go negative if you go far enough back
I rate it (out of 5): 4

I have also used: QCharts
For trading: stocks, futures
It costs: $99 a month + exchange fees
Benefits: very large intraday historical database for stocks, options, futures, futures options
Drawbacks: expensive, uses multiple servers some of which contain incomplete or even incorrect data
I rate it (out of 5): 3

I have also used: ESignal
For trading: futures
It costs: An arm and a leg (sometimes both arms depending on the package you choose)
Benefits: fast, quality data, continuous futures contracts
Drawbacks: super expensive, admin fees they charge nobody else does, half your profits are spent on their data fees
I rate it (out of 5): 3

I have also used: Quote.com Livecharts
For trading: stocks, futures
It costs: $15-$20 a month + exchange fees
Benefits: very cheap way to get current data -- excellent backup data feed for IB
Drawbacks: limited historical data (but what do you expect for $20 and under per month?)
I rate it (out of 5): 5

I have also used: Medved Quotetracker
For trading: stocks, futures
It costs: varies -- can be had for free with certain brokers and by clicking on ads
Benefits: inexpensive, ability to get data from tons of different providers, integrated trading for many brokers
Drawbacks: 10 day backfill, it's not a provider by itself (you need another source) but you can switch between multiple feeds
I rate it (out of 5): 5

I currently use: DTN satelite
I mainly trade:
It costs: 500mo.
Benefits: gives you a clear picture of the worlds markets, hundreds of indexex maybe thousand or 2, programable with fibs and every kind of technical tool imaginable, charts down to 1min streaming
Drawbacks:
I rate it (out of 5): 5

abosulutely the best imo...been useing it for years.....without dtn id be lost.......and with it...17 td.s toy...my secret weapon

I currently use:Medved Quotetracker
I mainly trade:ETF's
It costs:Registration for no ads is $25.00 for six months. I also pay $20.00 per month for it through RML trading (feed from Tradestream Global). I am an Ameritrade Apex client so I get free feed through AMTD. Free DJ News that I can copy and paste from in Quotetracker (can't do that in AMTD's streamer). I can switch intraday from AMTD to RML/TSG if I need to. I like having access to both. AMTD feed is not tick by tick but is still good and fast. RML/TSG is tick by tick so uses much more bandwidth. Also AMTD doesn't have some market stats like TICK and TRIN so I switch over to RML/TSG intraday to update those. I can also access access accounts from both brokers and trade through each without leaving Quotetracker. I have never posted on this site but wanted to do this as a way of publicly complimenting Jerry Medved for an incredibly excellent package for the price. I cannot daytrade because of business constraints (very hands on owner) but I have tried in the past to make the two co-exist. Daytraded for a couple of years through now defunct Sutton-on-Line. Used their Sonic 2000 package which was a modified form of Executioner and was pretty good. I have also used RealTick (see below) and Cybertrader. I switched to Cyber from RealTick because of the cost and the package pricing. Cyber was fair at best. I though that their stats were awful. They never seemed to agree with numbers I saw elsewhere.
Benefits:See above. I jumped the gun a bit.
Drawbacks:Charts are not great.
I rate it (out of 5):4

I have also used:RealTick
For trading:Stocks and ETF's
It costs:$260.00/month for top package. Includes all exchange fees. My fees were rebated based on trades so I never paid $260.00 and most months were free.
Benefits:Awesome trading platform. Fast with plenty of bells and whistles. All kinds of data. Amazing output for a package that puts little strain on your CPU's capacity. Nothing I haved used matches this.
Drawbacks:Only time I ever had a problem was with a struggle after they did a software upgrade.
I rate it (out of 5):5

I had been on RealTick before and went back to it (to daytrade) a couple of years ago. At the time I really wanted to go with Tradestation because of the combination of cost, historical data availibility, and backtesting. I also liked the idea that my stops would work in afterhours trade through TRAD. I know the risk there but I trade QQQ a lot and there would be little risk in that one because of liquidity. Tradestation was clearing through Bear Stearns and required an account with them. It's funny but I hate the big box brokerage houses and refused to go there because of that. Maybe I am wrong but I think that is in house now.

$100/mo for TS8???

I am paying $179/Mo plus exchange fees. Great software but it is a resource pig. I am running a clean P4 2.5Ghz with 1GB of memory and it can take 10-15 seconds to draw a trendline when the markets get busy. This was not a problem until build 3261 came out. 3280 has not resolved the extreme delay problems.

Really ticks me off when I have to use my brokers software on a 2nd computer to get a timely quote.

Looking for new software.

I require the trendline alerts, something similar to the Matrix (consolidated level II), and if I could, accurate fib timing cycles.

I was going to move a major account to TS this year but that is on hold until they get the software to run properly on something less than a clean dual-core computer.

KC