Deep discount combo: Interactive Brokers account + Google free real-time quotes

The Google official blog has just announced that Google is going to offer free real-time New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) quotes. This might not seem a big deal since online discount brokerage accounts typically also offer an unlimited access to real-time quotes. However, I see one case where this makes a difference: opening an account with the deep discount broker Interactive Brokers becomes more interesting.

Interactive Brokers' trading commissions are very low: 1$US to trade 200 shares on US exchanges or 2$ to trade 200 shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The caveat is that IB does not offer free real-time quotes: a fee of 10$US per month is charged for access to real-time US quotes (unless more than 30$US in commissions have already been paid in that month) while a fee of 9.50$ per month is charged for real-time TSX quotes. Instead using Google's soon-to-come NYSE quotes would mean avoiding part of these fees. If Google also eventually offers free real-time NASDAQ and TSX quotes, combining Google's services with an Interactive Brokers account could prove to be a terrific combo for experienced Canadian investors.