I have been using X-trader for a few months now and love it, however I used to use Ninja Trader and really liked the automated exit and stop strategies that can easily be created. Apparently I need X-trader pro to due similiar stuff. But as I'm sure you all know that is big bucks. $700 a month is bad enough just for the standard X-trader. Ninja is only $50 bucks a month and I can use the TT data feed with it. I never tried it but was thinking about swithing back to Ninja. I used Ninja with my IB for a while and liked it, but I am concerned about the speed issues compared to X-trader. If I am using the TT data feed then the speed should be similiar I would think. I clear through Advantage futures by the way.
I am, and having been for about 6 months I guess. It all depends on how well you broker supports NT. For example, do they have multiple redundant servers for the fix adaptor. Fix adapt. was a real problem a few months back, apparently now it seems more stable. The more customers they have on NT, the more infastructure=redundancy they would most likely have in place. Dan P.S. NT can be a bit of a resource pig sometimes, more so than X Trader basic, because it has trailing stops etc.
Really, I did not know Ninja was such a resource PIG. I just bought a $4000 work station computer a while back and the people over at TT told me to run two computers because X-Trader was such a resource pig. I said you got to be kidding me, so I am still running everthing on 1 machine, but may buy a cheap computer just for running e-signal seperatly. I never would have spent that kind of money on a PC if I knew I was going to have to buy 2 of them to get the job done.
When I was running version 6 X Trader, I had E signal with 3 charts running, and no CPU spikes to 100%, almost never. Check out techbargains.com. You can get a pretty cheap, fast dell, for about $500-600 tops. That said I run NT with 1 DOM, and 3 charts for ER2 right now on 1 computer, a no-no I know, and I only get 100% spikes on very fast movement or when I run a tick chart. I have 3.2ghz 800fsb with 1.5 gig or ram. Sign up for the trial from NT, you can test out yourself. When TT goes to a transactional model I will probably dump NT though. When there is a problem with NT, like in the past, you have to deal with multiple vendors, never a good thing.
what is the tranactional model? yeah I have 3 domes running at all times and about 12 different charts, all on 1 PC with 4 21" flat panels. So I guess even with a 4K machine it is slowing me down. I don't know much about computers so I just shelled out the 4K thinking it would be suffcient, but I guess it is not. I really need to buy another machine, just for charting. I am using a cable modem though from home. If I use 2 machines will it defeat the purpose you think. I really can't afford a T1 right now so I don't know what else to due.
No not at all. In fact, most pros run 3 computers on 1 single broadband connection. Just get a router like a Lynksys or D link from a computer store, it give you the ability to connect 4 computer at minimum in the back of it. Besides a router with NAT, they will know what you mean at the store, acts kind of like a firewall it hides your real computer address. Don't use a software firewall, it killed my cable modem speed in half! Go to dslreports.com and go to tools, speed tests, and test your speed after clearing temp files and see what speed you really get. 1. computer for charts 2. computer for DOM 3. computer for surfing the internet when not trading/or bored during trading day. When you get more computer savvy you can get a dual wan router that support 2 broadband connections, double the speed, or it will allow for automatic failover if one ISP goes down. I am planning on getting one soon. You can mix and match DSL and cable moden for twice the speed. You can probably hire a geek to do it if you can't. Hotbrick makes a nice dual wan router for about $200 on tigerdirect.com The nice thing about 3 computers is it provides redundancy if one craps out, have all apps loaded on everyone just in case 1 or 2 goes out. Much cheaper to buy 3 at $600, plus router, than a server. That's about the limit of my computer knowledge. I hope this helps. Good luck. Dan
Try StrategyRunner with TT (available on ShatkinArbor and Velocity futures) it uses TT feed and order routing and almost doesn't take up any PC resources (it uses server based technology all calculations are done on the server side) it also offer historical charts from the server. The servers is connected to TT Fix adaptor (or multiple adaptors) so from a speed issue you are as fast or even more then TT (since some times you have less data going through the FIX adaptor then the usual TT pipes)