I am looking for a software/brokerage firm such as TradeStation that provides the full package of data-feed, backtesting strategies on the data, and execute those strategies fully automatically through its own brokerage service. Many of the automated solutions I found act more like a bridge between the trading strategy and the broker. For example, NinjaTrader takes the signal from TradeStation or eSignal(data-feed) and sends orders to the broker. I don't understand why anyone who has data-feed from TradeStation would use some other software and broker to do automatic trading. It seems like a hassle to integrate the data-feed, backtesting software, automated execution, and brokerage, which are usually provided by different vendors. You have to make sure that all the service providers are compatible with each other along the chain. Does anyone know of any software besides TradeStation that can provide real-time data, backtesting, automated trading, and brokerage all in one?
NinjaTrader/ZenFire/Amp ... NinjaTrader/ZenFire/Mirus ... you get the idea. They all work together, you just have to pay the license fee for NT
For what instruments? I assume you are trading precious metals with physical delivery. In that case, the answer is: no. There isn't a firm that provides brokerage, data-feed, and backtesting software all in one, to test and trade and receive physical delivery of precious metals. Sorry.
http://www.quanthouse.com/ Why do you need back-testing included in the package anyway.? Backtesting is a thing of the past IMO. I have no time for backtesting. Automated trading system developemnt is what you need. You may have to pay $$$ for it but there is no way to get an edge doing things every young kid with a fast computer and cheap software can do. This one will cost you some $$$ but it generates code for Tradestation and Quanthouse: http://www.tradingsystemlab.com/home.aspx This one is restricted to price patterns and costs less $$$ but it does the job and generates code for Tradestation, Wealth-Lab and Metastock.: http://www.tradingpatterns.com/ Ron
well, I am mainly interested in trading equities, and will move to futures or options depending on progress. I still cannot seem to find anything that provides functionalities as fully as TradeStation does. I need backtesting capability. Otherwise I would not know if a strategy is profitable at all. I fully understand that backtesting will only tell you what might be profitable in the past. So its main purpose is to eliminate strategies that don't even work with historical data. Any other idea would be welcome.
Another thing I don't really understand is: If TradeStation provides both data, automated trading, and brokerage all in one, why would anyone want to use NinjaTrader? NinjaTrader just gets data from external source and automatically sends execution to the broker. So with NinjaTrader you will need a separate data provider and a broker, a total of 3 different parties. Can some NinjaTrader users enlighten me on why they don't just use the fully integrated TradeStation? Thanks,
Integration of this kind is not always desirable by experienced traders who understand how things work. Custom solutions can offer higher flexibility, efficiency and security.
I use Interactive Brokers rather than Tradestation for a brokerage. I prefer the Universal account at IB that lets me have an account that I can trade futures and stocks....can't do that at TS. I can also trade client accounts thru my Advisor account in the same manner. All orders are sent to IB via NinjaTrader. IB is just a better brokerage solutiion....for me.
Thanks for the replies from intradaybill and rtstrading. Your inputs are very helpful in helping me evaluate my options. I think it is reasonable that an integrated solution(data+software+broker) like TradeStation underperforms providers that specialize in their particular functions. Interactive Broker is no doubt a better broker than TS, and NinjaTrader might be a better automation software than TS.(just as an example, I don't know for sure) So experienced traders who require better customization or performance might choose to integrate the different providers to get the best performance out of all providers. For a new trader like me who just started to automate trades, TradeStation might be a good starting point, since it does everything in one package and my strategies do not require high frequency data and execution. Anyone else wants to share any thought?