Book futures data fees as implementation cost

A split in who pays for the book

From March 1, 2014, newly opened nonprofessional accounts in futures were charged about 3 to 15 dollars per month for live-data access: real-time quotes, charts, and depth-of-market panels on an electronic platform. A nonprofessional account is a retail futures account used other than as a sole source of income, and therefore subject to the venue's lighter retail data schedule.

That monthly live-data charge applied only to electronic platform access. Traders who sent orders through a full-service broker or trade desk were not billed for it. Live-data access meant electronic platform rights rather than broker-mediated order placement.

Nonprofessional accounts that were already open and active before March 1, 2014 received a waiver of the extra data charge until January 2015.

Professional-user levy and thinner desks

Professional users such as brokers, trade-desk clerks, and commodity trading advisors were expected to face several hundred to several thousand dollars per user per month. That professional-user levy is the much higher monthly per-user data charge applied to brokers, desk clerks, advisors, and similar industry staff.

The commentary argued that the professional-side levy could put small brokerages out of business and deter larger firms from hiring. Thinner brokerage staffs were described as producing longer hold times, slower responses, and less knowledgeable support for accounts of every size. Broker capacity is the headcount and expertise a firm can keep on the desk after professional data costs rise.

Fixed-cost reallocation after volume falls

Fewer brokers and fewer participants were projected to lower contract volume and force remaining fixed costs into higher per-account commissions and other brokerage charges. Fixed-cost reallocation is the process by which industry-wide data and overhead burdens get spread across fewer remaining accounts as higher per-trader charges.

The retail fee was framed as an annoyance rather than an exit trigger for committed traders, but as enough friction to steer some casual participants toward forex or equity exchange-traded funds instead of listed commodities.