In order to get live data feed to your Trader Workstation, you need to subscribe to market data. Note: Without market data subscriptions, hotkeys that use Ask or Bid price will not work. It will show blank space.

Professional vs Non-Professional

Market data subscriptions are less expensive if you set yourself as Non-Professional.

1. From Interactivebrokers.ca, go to Settings > User Settings > Trading Platform > Market Data Subscriptions.
2. Open Market Data Subscriber Status.
3. Set yourself as Non-Professional Subscriber and fill the questionnaire.

Here is the definition of professional vs non-professional:

Most exchanges and data vendors classify clients as either non-professional or professional. By default, organizations such as corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and any account where the data is used for more than personal investment purposes is deemed to be professional. In addition, private persons may be considered professional if they are registered as a security or investment advisor, or act in a similar capacity. A trader who is employed by a financial services business may also be considered a professional.

How to subscribe to market data

1. Ensure that you have fund in your account. Otherwise, it will allow you to go through the subscription process without saving it.
2. From Interactivebrokers.ca, go to Settings > User Settings > Trading Platform > Market Data Subscriptions.
3. Open Current Subscriptions.
4. For me, I asked support that I want Level 2 price for US stocks(AMEX, NASDAQ, NYSE) and I don't trade PINK nor OTC stocks. They told me to select the followings:
   • NASDAQ TotalView
   • NYSE ArcaBook
   • NYSE OpenBook
   • NYSE American, BATS, ARCA, IEX, and Regional Exchanges (Network B)
   • NYSE (Network A/CTA)
   • NASDAQ (Network C/UTP)

Right off the bat, it will cost me $55.5/month for market data subscriptions.

Market Data Subscription Termination

The good thing about market data subscription is if you don't log into Trader Workstation (IB TWS) for 60 days, your active market data subscriptions will be terminated.