Which brokerages offer the best streaming quotes (tick level) for the best price?
I have ScottradeElite on my desktop. I have played around with it but no longer use it. The transactions that I make through Scottrade are more dependent on my goals for the securities than what the market is doing at the moment.  Keep in mind that there will always be others out there with better access to price changes than you. They also will have better hardware. We cannot beat them at their game.
They could have different quotes as there are more than a few pieces here.  Are you talking a Real Time Level II quote or just a delayed quote?  Delayed quotes could vary as different companies would be using different time points in their data.  You aren't specifying exactly what kind of quote from which system are you using here. The key to this question is how much of a pinpoint answer do you want and how prepared are you to pay for that kind of access to the automated trades happening?  Remember that there could well be more than a few trades happening each millisecond and thus latency is something to be very careful here, regardless of the exchange as long as we are talking about first-world stock exchanges where there are various automated systems being used for trading. Different market makers is just a possible piece of the equation here.  One could have the same market maker but if the timings are different,e.g. if one quote is at 2:30:30 and the other is at 2:30:29 there could be a difference given all the trades processed within that second, thus the question is how well can you get that split second total view of bids and asks for a stock.  You want to get all the outstanding orders which could be a non-trivial task. I can't provide a list, but when I took out my Stocks and Shares, I extensively researched for a good, cheap, flexible option and I went with FoolShareDealing.  I've found them to be good, and their online trading system works well.  I hope that's still the case. I've been a retail trader for close to 7 years and while I have a specialized futures account, I use Interactive Brokers for my other trading. They charge per share or contract rather than per trade (good for smaller accounts  or if you want to piece into and out of positions). You can also trade just about anything. Futures, options, options on futures, individual stocks, ETFs, Bonds (futures), currencies. The interface is pretty good as well. I have seperate charts (eSignal) so I'm not sure how good their charting is The main source is a direct feed from the stock market itself. The faster the feed, the more expensive. 15-minute delay is essentially free... and for those of us who do long-term investment is more than adequate.  If you want data sooner, sign up with a brokerage that provides that service as part of what you're paying them for... and remember that every bit you spend on services is that much more profit you have to make just to break even, so there's a real tradeoff. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/shares/CompareSharesForm.asp lists many. I found the Interactive Investor website to be excruciatingly bad. I switched to TD Waterhouse and found the website good but the telephone service a bit abrupt. I often use the data presented on SelfTrade but don't have an account there. Quite a few Banks/brokers offer direct terminals to NSE where you can see live prices. Sort of unrelated to the main post here, but I've been hoping to buy a few shares that would motivate me to follow the market and get a bit of hands on experience to better understand it all.  What trading program would you recommend for a few simple trades like that?  Thanks! You will likely need to open an account in another EU country, like a broker operating out of France, Britain or Germany, to get the best options.  If you are comfortable using an english language site and interface, I highly recommend Interactive Brokers as they let you trade in many markets simultaneously, have simple currency conversion, and great tools.  But, they are geared toward active traders so you might be better with a more retail oriented broker if you are new to trading stocks. There are many options.  Here is a list to start with: Another one I have seen mentioned used is Equity Feed. It had varies levels of the software depending on the markets you want and can provide level 2 quotes if select that option. http://stockcharts.com/ is also a great tool I see mentioned with lots of free stuff. Where do you get your data feed from. I'm a software developer and I will be looking to do some light trading in the future. I just have no idea where I can get a streaming feed.  I think if I code something I will get a better feel of the markets. I like the idea of trading in stocks. Although, I will have to see at a later stage. http://buytwitchviewers.socialyup.com : If you are looking for the best service providing firm in the market to buy Twitch viewers fast then you can go through any reliable online marketing portal. This way, you will get the maximum viewers at the cost effective price. "Not arguing w that at all, and you can't colo w IB afaik. Their API over WAN, VPN or CTCI on direct line only. If you colo at Nasdaq and clear through Lightspeed you're talking microseconds (which is where my actual low latency strats are). But yes, I suppose for IB I should have mentioned ""low-ish"" latency rather than actual low latency. So I'll add a caveat to the newbs - don't try to do ECN arb (or any other super-low-latency strat) or market-make (their cancel fees will kill you) the entire equity universe through IB. It won't work. They're not suitable for that.  My 50-100 reference was for WAN IB clearing for these guys probably using their API through IB gateway or TWS, which is how most would likely start. Doubt they're diving head first into ECN arb day one - they probably wouldn't be doing lowest latency stuff, most peeps start w some sort of trend following strat in my exp and you can work on those timescales w those. Trying to give advice for people starting out, not for other already pro algo traders.  But yes, finprogger is correct, IB would not be a suitable broker to use for a competitive ultra low-latency strat. They are too slow." "All discount brokers offer a commission structure that is based on the average kind of order that their target audience will make. Different brokers advertise to different target audiences. They could all have a lot lower commissions than they do. The maximum commission price for the order ticket is set at $99 by the industry securities regulators. When discount brokers came along and started offering $2 - $9.99 trades, it was simply because these new companies could be competitive in a place where incumbents were overcharging. The same exists with Robinhood. The market landscape and costs have changed over the last decade with regulation NMS, and other brokerage firms never needed to update drastically because they could continue making a lot on commissions with nobody questioning it. The conclusion being that other brokers can also charge a lot less, despite their other overhead costs. Robinhood, like other brokerage firms (and anyone else trading directly with the exchanges), are paid by the exchanges for adding liquidity. Not only are many trades placed with no commission for the broker, they actually earn money for placing the trade. If Robinhood was doing you any favors, they would be paying you. But nobody questions free commissions so they don't. Robinhood, like other brokerage firms, sells your trading data to the highest bidder. This is called ""payment for order flow"", these subscribers see your order on the internet in route to the exhange, and before your order gets to the exchange, the subscriber sends a different order to the exchange so they either get filled before you do (analogous to front running, but different enough to not be illegal) or they alter the price of the thing you wanted to buy or sell so that you have to get a worse price. These subscribers have faster computers and faster internet access than other market participants, so are able to do this so quickly. They are also burning a lot of venture capital like all startups. You shouldn't place too much faith in the idea they are making [enough] money. They also have plans to earn interest off of balances in a variety of ways and offer more options at a price (like margin accounts)." "If you have at least $25,000, Wells Fargo is the place to be, as you get 100 free trades per account. I have three investment accounts with them and get 100 free trades in each a year, though I only ever actually use 10-20. i can't vouch for their phone service as I've never needed it, but free is very hard to beat in the ""value for money"" department. Update: Apparently in some states the requirement is $50,000. However, they count 10% of your mortgage as well as all deposit and investment accounts toward that balance." I personally like Schwab. Great service, low fees, wide variety of fund are available at no fee. TD Ameritrade is good too.