Not a big deal at all for active traders, but it would be nice if in return we get exempt from PACING VIOLATIONS for the 100 allowed symbols. Perhaps someone from IB could take this up with management.
Dear Customer, As U.S. exchanges continue to reorganize their market data services, creating increasingly fragmented offerings at higher prices, modifications to the services offered by Interactive Brokers are required. When determining services to offer, we look to aggregate individual exchange content into a comprehensive, yet cost effective bundle that is intended to meet the needs of most non-professionals. The table below provides a comparison of content and costs between your current subscription, the U.S. Securities Non-professional Bundle Level 1 which will be terminated November 30, 2014, and its replacements. These replacement services are now available for subscription election within Account Management and, to ensure uninterrupted streaming of real-time quotes, you will need to make your subscription elections prior to the U.S. Securities Non-professional Bundle Level 1 November 30, 2014 termination date. When selecting replacements, it's important to note that electing the U.S. Value Bundle subscription alone will not guarantee display of the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO, or the inside market) for U.S. stocks. While the BATS Exchange comprises approximately 20% of U.S. equity volume and is often at the NBBO, subscription to each of the AMEX, NYSE and NASDAQ Level 1 quote services is required to ensure NBBO display. Further note that the subscription election and quote displayed has no impact upon the price at which an order is executed as all are entitled to execution at the prevailing NBBO.
I agree, I don't believe a few extra dollars is going to affect anyone. I would gladly pay an additional fee to eliminate pacing errors as long as the fee was allocated to upgrading servers to handle the increased demand. Two edged sword, want fast reliable intra day data speeds and minimal history, or 20 years history and potential lag in fast markets, volatility events etc... But regarding data fee's, ~ $30 is dirt cheap.
It is a double edged sword indeed, especially for me in Bangkok with typical latency to Chicago ranging from 330ms on very good days to 500-600ms on bad days. Throw in a bit of packet loss and tick data is simply not usable. I persevered with Rithmic for more than a year before I gave up. IB with its snapshot data is ideal for my situation and style of trading, but pacing violations are infuriating. I don't download tons of backfill/historical data, just want to connect my allowed symbols fast with a backfill from yesterday's close. Perhaps IB could redefine pacing violations - up to 100 separate requests in 10 mins allowed, with a maximum backfill of 1 day; longer backfill and different criteria apply. This would allow those who simply want to connect and trade to do so with no fuss.
My workaround was to only load my primary instruments and active positions in MC-IB feed. www.tradingview.com with pro subscription for Equities market data. (Market data is reasonable for equities) If you go pro with 2 year subscription ($299) it is relatively inexpensive as well. {Pro provides extended hours and Multiple Watch lists which helps with organization} fwiw I perform my long term analysis on TV and intraday on MC. It isn't ideal, but I seldom get pacing violations anymore. I also believe pacing violations aren't an issue with TWS only API, so there is that option as well. Good luck
I also got the above message that the Interactive Brokers current Market Data scheme is terminating November 30, 2014. In the current non-professional bundle, for $10 you get, among other services, AMEX Level 1, NYSE Level 1, Nasdaq Level 1, along with BATS and other electronic exchanges. The new package gives you the electronic exchanges for $10, but you have to buy separately the AMEX Level 1, NYSE Level 1, and Nasdaq Level 1 for $1.50 each. A footnote says that the US bundle alone (which includes the electronic exchanges) does not guarantee display of NBBO. To assure NBBO, you need to subscribe to each of AMEX, NYSE and NASDAQ Level 1. I am interested in what other traders are doing. I only trade 100 or 200 shares at a time on the NYSE. I mostly trade the IWM. Since I trade a low number of shares, would I be able to get the same execution if I only subscribed to NYSE? Or if I just took the US Value bundle, would I still get good execution using the electronic exchanges without the NYSE Level 1 quote?
The order servers are different from the quote servers. The quotes servers only help you enter your orders on the order servers. So, if you only want to trade stocks on the NYSE, you need only subscribe to the NYSE level 1 quotes.
If I understand everything correctly, the answer to your last question is "yes". (Slowly reread the note that IB sent out.)