Market Data Considerations for the Paper Trading Account

As a licensed distributor of exchange market data, we are obligated to respect constraints imposed by the exchanges which serve to govern the dissemination and/or retransmission of this data.

As a general rule, within a given account, the real user can activate and maintain its own set of market data subscriptions. The paper user, by design, does not have a set of market data subscription on its own but can be configured in one of the following ways:

  1. The paper user can be set to share2 the live market data subscriptions of the real user:

    • In this scenario, if the real and paper trading sessions are running simultaneously, they must reside on the same device in order for the paper to receive live market data. If this is not the case, the real trading session will be still afforded the real-time market data but the paper trading session will not receive any data3 . Please see the section Case 1 below for details.

  2. The paper user can be set NOT to share2 the live market data subscriptions of the real user:

    • In this scenario, the real and paper trading sessions are independent, in respect of market data flows. Hence, they can run simultaneously on the same or on different devices and the paper user will receive delayed data, as available. Please see the section Case 1 below for details.

  3. In case the account possess multiple real users, the paper user can be set to share2 the live market data subscriptions of a chosen one.

    • Clients who wish to run real and paper sessions simultaneously and on different devices (e.g., stand-alone PC, smart phone, tablet), may create an additional real user for their account, as explained here: Adding a second user for an individual account holder. While this approach will result in additional fees for any paid market data subscriptions elected, it will allow maintaining different subscription sets. In this scenario, the client will be able to select2 which real user will share his subscriptions with the paper user, allowing the other real user and the paper trading sessions to run simultaneously on different devices. Please see the section Case 2 below for details.

Example Cases

Case 1

Account users:1 real user + 1 paper user

REAL_USER is subscribed to live market data

Location of real_user session Location of paper_user session Sharing of live market data between real_user and paper_user is active? Type of market data received by real_user Type of market data received by paper_user
DEVICE1 DEVICE2 YES LIVE No Data
DEVICE1 DEVICE1 YES LIVE Live
DEVICE1 DEVICE2 NO LIVE Delayed
DEVICE1 DEVICE1 NO LIVE Delayed
USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 YES N/A Live
USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 NO N/A Delayed

CASE 2

Account users: (after the creation of a secondary real user) : 2 real users + 1 paper user

REAL_USER1 is subscribed to live market data

REAL_USER2 is subscribed to live market data

Location of real_user1 session Location of real_user2 session Location of paper_user session paper_user is mirroring the subscriptions of Type of market data received by real_user1 Type of market data received by real_user2 Type of market data received by paper_user
USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 DEVICE2 real_user1 N/A LIVE LIVE
USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 DEVICE1 real_user1 N/A LIVE LIVE
DEVICE1 USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE2 real_user1 LIVE N/A No Data3
DEVICE1 USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 real_user1 LIVE N/A LIVE
USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 DEVICE2 real_user2 N/A LIVE No Data3
USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 DEVICE1 real_user2 N/A LIVE LIVE
DEVICE1 USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE2 real_user2 LIVE N/A LIVE
DEVICE1 USER NOT LOGGED IN DEVICE1 real_user2 LIVE N/A LIVE
DEVICE1 DEVICE1 DEVICE2 real_user1 LIVE LIVE No Data3
DEVICE1 DEVICE1 DEVICE1 real_user1 LIVE LIVE LIVE
DEVICE1 DEVICE2 DEVICE2 real_user2 LIVE LIVE LIVE
DEVICE1 DEVICE1 DEVICE2 real_user1 LIVE LIVE

No Data3

DEVICE1 DEVICE1 DEVICE2 Set NOT to mirror LIVE LIVE DELAYED
DEVICE1 DEVICE1 DEVICE1 Set NOT to mirror LIVE LIVE DELAYED
DEVICE1 DEVICE2 DEVICE1 Set NOT to mirror LIVE LIVE DELAYED
DEVICE1 DEVICE2 DEVICE2 Set NOT to mirror LIVE LIVE DELAYED

Notes

  1. Trading Session: For trading session, we consider a user session successfully established and actively running on any of the following platforms:

    • Trader Workstation (TWS)

    • Mobile App

    • Web Trader

    • Client Portal

  2. Market data mirroring and sharing user selection: On the Client Portal, those functions are present in the section: Settings -> Account Settings -> Configure (gear) icon

  3. No Data: On the paper session, the trading platform will display a warning message containing: “...production username associated with this paper-trading username is also running on...”