It all depends what you trade. I have IB, TDA and
Mirus/Dorman.
IB is good for stocks and ETFs but not for futures (as they
don't provide real tick data). For futures I use NinjaTrader
/ Zenfire.
I run my automated systems for ETFs via NinjaTrader
and IB. The basic mech cross-over systems are very easy to code in
NT through the strategy wizard.
NT has some instability issues (esp. with e.g. TDA) but IB
works pretty good for me. I tested up to 30 strategies running
simultaneously running on my laptop. As any platform NT
has its (undocumented) pecurilarities, but their support forum is
quite good. At BigMikeTrading blog you can find many helpful
traders that can help you with NT ... and TradesStation.
I always advise people to look a bit deeper into NT to get the
best value out of it. But I shared a generic NT
code on the blog couple weeks ago, that will do the trick and
much more (the code was designed for backtesting/optimizing).
A standard cross-over strategy code for end of day strategies
with hardcoded parameters is even easier ...15 min work.
Non-end of day strategies (e.g. swing trades) are still irritant
in NT as IB forces a shutdown of the connection each day and you
have to restart NT and check if the positions NT recalculates based
on historic data are the same as on the IB account. NT7 should
solve this but is apparently still months away.
NT is free (including SIM trading) up to the moment you want to
go to real trading. But if you go to real trading, I advise to
first run test via IB paper trading to test if all works.
The advantage of IB is that they often have shorts available
that other brokers don't.
Cooltrade looks good and connects to optionshouse (currently $3
flat rate) but don't know about shorts.
I tried strategy desk of TDA (before I went to NT) and did not
like it. No paper trading and fills I culd not explain.
TradeStation appears to be standard here, and I understand
shorts are at times hard to get. Very stable platform but you got
your platform fees is you don't trade enough. As I want to spread
risks and brokerages Iwill get this soon as second platform.
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It all depends what you
mechanical trading systems
Posted by peterm on 20th of Aug 2009 at 08:20 am
It all depends what you trade. I have IB, TDA and Mirus/Dorman.
IB is good for stocks and ETFs but not for futures (as they don't provide real tick data). For futures I use NinjaTrader / Zenfire.
I run my automated systems for ETFs via NinjaTrader and IB. The basic mech cross-over systems are very easy to code in NT through the strategy wizard.
NT has some instability issues (esp. with e.g. TDA) but IB works pretty good for me. I tested up to 30 strategies running simultaneously running on my laptop. As any platform NT has its (undocumented) pecurilarities, but their support forum is quite good. At BigMikeTrading blog you can find many helpful traders that can help you with NT ... and TradesStation.
I always advise people to look a bit deeper into NT to get the best value out of it. But I shared a generic NT code on the blog couple weeks ago, that will do the trick and much more (the code was designed for backtesting/optimizing).
A standard cross-over strategy code for end of day strategies with hardcoded parameters is even easier ...15 min work.
Non-end of day strategies (e.g. swing trades) are still irritant in NT as IB forces a shutdown of the connection each day and you have to restart NT and check if the positions NT recalculates based on historic data are the same as on the IB account. NT7 should solve this but is apparently still months away.
NT is free (including SIM trading) up to the moment you want to go to real trading. But if you go to real trading, I advise to first run test via IB paper trading to test if all works.
The advantage of IB is that they often have shorts available that other brokers don't.
Cooltrade looks good and connects to optionshouse (currently $3 flat rate) but don't know about shorts.
I tried strategy desk of TDA (before I went to NT) and did not like it. No paper trading and fills I culd not explain.
TradeStation appears to be standard here, and I understand shorts are at times hard to get. Very stable platform but you got your platform fees is you don't trade enough. As I want to spread risks and brokerages Iwill get this soon as second platform.