Interactive Brokers apparently now has tick data available through TWS. Has anyone tried using tick charts with their data?
IB tick charts have a terrible reputation historically because of the aggregated 'snapshot' data they used to provide but this is an updated feature. I just haven't heard anyone speak about the quality of the tick charts using this new feature yet.
I've used IB's tick data. The biggest drawback with their tick data is that you're not able to backfill historical data, so unless you're willing to collect the tick data, it's not much use ….unless you incorporate very short time-frames or leave your TWS on 24/7.
The following user says Thank You to Shmo7 for this post:
Interesting. That's helpful actually I might try it out as I don't need historical, just live for short term equities trading. I'm kind of in between data feeds ATM so it's worth a shot.
Remember, IB tick data does not start until a chart is opened. If you use indicators of any sort, you'll need a minimum # of bars before that indicator is valid. For example, if you use a 50 tick bars and a 150 SMA..... you'll may need to wait hours (depending on how activate the market is) before the 150 SMA is giving you accurate information.
If you're trading solely using price action without any indicators, IB's tick data may work.
