Does booktrader have better fills than Ninjatrader, Buttontrader, etc.? Can booktrader do trailing stops? How about 2 or 3 targets (scaling out)? thx.
Why do you think any of these programs will give a better fill? You click a button, the program sends the order to your local TWS, TWS sends it to IB server, IB server sends it to the exchange. And here it depends on what kind of order you submitted, market or limit, how it is processed. The most influence on speed of execution is exerted by you: how fast you click the button and how well you read the market....In this respect the user-interface of the trading-program you use counts: how does it help you to make a good and fast decision? And how well does this user-interface support you in submitting e.g. orders with multiple trailing steps, help you scale in and -out, submit bracket orders etc.. BookTrader can be used to perform the tasks you asked for. Submitting Bracket orders with trailing stops is easy, scaling out not so easy. Just test the programs and you will soon find out that the specialized 3rd-party frontends - like ButtonTrader - are much better in this respect than BookTrader. Especially try to manage your orders: change the target, change your stop, decide to scale out, decide to merge several orders into one, manage several Long and Short strategies at the same time, monitor P&L per trade, etc, etc.... See for yourself how well these everyday tasks are supported by the different interfaces. Speaking for ButtonTrader, it is build in ultra-fast C++ code connecting to TWS directly via API-socket, using a separate high priority thread which gives precedence to Orders and Executions...a faster API-connection is simply not possible. Hope it helps
i have definitely no doubt about it noticed that book trader is faster than bracket trader. i use both. when i need to get an order in very quick, i use br when i am setting up a limit order with more time, and for a more complex trade setup i use bracket trader. if book trader makes a few improvements (feature wise) which i hope they will, i'll stick with book trader definitely faster than bracket (or ninja).
I don't expect buttontrader to give BETTER fills than IB's booktrader, although it sure wouldn't surprise me to see worse fills, as the poster above noted for bracket trader. Has anyone with experience with both booktrader and buttontrader noticed better fills with IB's booktrader?
Not worse, nor better..it's just the same: as good. Have your really measured it?. The Answer is Yes.. While I can not speak for Bracket nor Ninja, I know the measurements of ButtonTrader, and these tell me that there is no significant difference at all..Even when I know that ButtonTrader is a bit faster (the other tools are in Vbasic and don't use direct socket connection), than I still doubt that you can click the mouse (including eye-hand coordination) faster on BookTrader-price-cell than on the Price-button of the other tool on your PC-desktop.... Actually I have measured it for ButtonTrader in the following test-line. I used 3 PC's one of them running TWS and BookTrader, one with ButtonTrader connected through a LAN to the TWS-API on the first PC (sadly I needed to run on a different PC, because I needed 2 mouses in this test). And then I have a FIX-IB-Simu-host running on another PC, to which TWS is connected. This IB-Simu-host is where the real-measurement is taken place: when an Order is send by TWS (initiated by BookTrader or ButtonTrader) the receive is measured...so the difference between the 2 interfaces can be measured. The actual test was me, using my left hand for one mouse and the right hand for another mouse, and then try to click at the exact same time....Well even the fact that the ButtonTrader-PC was in disadvantages because of the LAN, there was no significant difference in speed...actually my right-hand-mouse did win nearly all the time (I switched mouses and tools during the test).... I think the above speaks for itself.
The beauty of Buttontrader is that it is almost idiot-proof which is what I need. It is almost hard to screw up with Buttontrader but it is verrrrrry easy to make a mistake with Booktrader. Speedwise I cannot see any difference.
Take it from one whos prone to execution errors, Buttontrader is worth every dime. One wrong clik on Booktrader will pay for three months of BT. Hoi is a genius at keeping people out of trouble.
Different subscription level for ButtonTrader. Cheapest is $65 for 3 months which works out to $22 a month. BookTrader seems back-assward, clicking the ask price to sell. IB should buy out ButtonTrader. It could be a selling feature for TWS and the traders could get it for free. Are you listening IB?