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Data feeds and execution - CQG, Rithmic, Tradovate (and more?)
Hello, this is my first post here (excluding intro) so hopefully I will not mess up too badly and break too many rules
I have searched the forums and read the threads on the topic I am going to ask about but the info I found was not sufficient for me to get a clear understanding, so here it goes:
I am basically trying to determine the best data feed to use when I go back to trading live and I am trying to get my head around the different facets I need to consider to select the best solution for me. To give context I am focused on scalping and have no automation/algo involved (except an automated stop loss and take profit order entered by my trading platform upon execution). I use Jigsaw Daytradr.
So far I am considering the following 3 data feed providers (CQG, Rithmic, Tradovate) and this is what I found out about them so far:
CQG: solid all-round solution with cheap round-turn fees of $0.20, shows 10 price levels and 1 month of historic tick data, can suffer lags/freezes when market spikes occur, like after a Trump tweet or news event Rithmic: highly reliable but "expensive" solution at $0.50 round-turn fees, shows entire order book (20+ price levels) but only 1 day of historic tick data, performs great even under high data flows due to news events. Tradovate: cheapest solution if monthly $199 flat fee adopted (only exchange, clearing and routing fees owed), shows 10 price levels and 2 weeks of historic tick data (as far as I can tell), reliability in high data flows due to news events is unknown
So, from a price point of view Tradovate seems to be the best, however I do not know how they hold up as far as reliability goes.
I know there are other providers like TT, CTS, IQ but they all seemed more expensive without offering any advantage from what I could tell.
Also, I am unclear how execution is affected by the choice of data feed provider?
Any help sorting this out (and correcting any mistakes I made above) would be greatly appreciated.
Not sure from your post whether you have tried the Tradovate 14 day demo. That would be long enough to see whether any issues appear with data lags on news events.
They have a browser version or a desktop version of the platform, to use it with daytradr you will need to use the desktop version. The Tradovate replay is also very good, exactly replicating the live data so you will be able to practice your scalping.
If happy I would then sign up with them and try it for a few days at least before purchasing a monthly membership package just to be sure. Be aware that the $199/month membership is if you sign up for a year of commission free payments. If paying month by month it is $349/month ( https://www.tradovate.com:443/pricing/ )
The worst that can happen is that you think everything will be fine, then for whatever reason you aren't happy and decide to stop trading live. And so need to open another account somewhere else.
Not an exact answer to your question I know, but just my thoughts.
You do not win as a trader, you just get to play again the next day. If that game doesn’t appeal to you then you should not trade. Gary Norden
CQG was the best data-source years ago, but this continuum is just middle-class (IMHO)
for me is Rithmic the best data-source you can get, it is very fast and accurate and it doesn't show 20 price-levels (as you posted), it shows the entire orderbook
I have traded both CQG live and Tradovate demo (I am actually using it right now for testing my revised strategy) and have not noticed any substantial difference on a day to day basis. Since we have not had any major news events this month (at least not while I was trading) I have not been able to test the Tradovate platform "unders stress" though.
In any case, I fully agree lowest fees is important when scalping which is why I was looking into Tradovate, but i got told that Rithmic is the way to go so I was trying to figure out what the difference between these providers really is (or if there is in fact any difference for human/non-algo traders).
Thanks for the info, did not know Tradovate used CQG. It would explain why I could not see any discernible difference when using one or the other.
As for Rithmic, I corrected the original post to reflect the correct price levels (thanks), but I am not sure I fully understand what you mean by fast and accurate and how it would impact my decision making and/or trade execution?
The original location, emicro and emini futures trading, was reasonable, but I have moved it to Reviews of Brokers and Data Feeds, which is more specific.
Don't worry too much about breaking rules, so long as you don't mean to.
Trying to do the right thing is always OK.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
Then enter your Rithmic login details in to the Jigsaw daytradr Connection Manager and you will have Jigsaw connected to the Rithmic feed. Make sure in the Connection Manager that you then uncheck the box for the CQG/Tradovate feed to connect automatically on startup or you will be connected to both feeds. I think the daytradr tries to acquire platform data in the order of the feeds as listed so it could be using the CQG data rather than the Rithmic if you still have that one connected too.
Personally if scalping I wouldn't worry about having more than ten levels of depth on the DOM. It is though very good if using a heatmap like BookMap or the Jigsaw version especially on thinner instruments that can swing around a bit and where you want to see liquidity levels a lot further out, then I would go with Rithmic.
You do not win as a trader, you just get to play again the next day. If that game doesn’t appeal to you then you should not trade. Gary Norden
