Been swing trading and doing options on US equities for almost four years now. Main setup has always been IBKR, with third-party tools on the side for Level 2 order flow and earnings breakdowns.
It works, but the costs and friction are starting to add up. Level 2 subscriptions aren’t huge on their own, but combined with options contract fees and several paid research tools, they become noticeable over time. My bigger frustration is mobile. A lot of the professional features I rely on are either stripped down or awkward to use when I’m away from my desk, which makes managing an options position on the go more stressful than it should be.
I'm reassessing my whole tool stack now. Curious what the more experienced folks here are running, specifically people doing deep order flow analysis, earnings research, and portfolio management. Are the paid professional data subscriptions actually worth it, or have you found something that does the job for less?