Go easy bro... take the good advice people offered and stick to the plan. We're all just talking some smack to one degree or another. Filter the good from the bad and you'll do great. Don't let it get to you.
This thread i so full of conflicts. You said you have done this a few times but aren't sure it is viable yet but at the same time you confidently say you have done this strategy for real and aren't worried about your fills or testing them in demo. You said it yourself, you don't know if it works long term or not, you even said you are still figuring out the plan. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Instead of worrying about your platform while you had a perfectly fine working setup with Schwab, worry about making sure your strategy actually works (more than just a few times, with real money fills), before worrying about your platform, saving a few bucks on commission and before putting fake paper money expectations in your head ...
By the way, straddling the news is a very old strategy, if it were that easy everyone would be raking in money during news releases. As per usual, if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.
The issue is not if FJ can make some money. The issue is can FJ lose money, imo. E.g. can FJ swing multiple contacts live, and take a good size loss. then another bigger loss, and then a third? People ask "can I make money", but if they want to be a trader, the question is "Can I take losing money without it impacting my ability to trade well" (and make money). PS: I see FJ responded below. Of course that is not what I talking about. I was referring to trade to trade and not going on tilt.
When I did this at Schwab, it was 100% manual without any advanced charting. Schwab StreetSmart mobile app. No graphs, no candlesticks, nothing. Just looking at a number change on a screen then real quick seeing which it's going, placing trade, then closing trade almost immediately. This morning was the first time that I justified making the switch to an advanced charting platform, actually. The trade opened and closed in less time than I could even seen which way the price was moving.
Another conflict . You said you did the same at Schwab, but now you say what you did at Schwab was seeing the prices changing real quick and then enter and exit. How is that even remotely similar to placing stop orders BEFORE the news is released with a fixed stop and target, to straddle the news? That trade opened and closed in less time than you could see, because it was a fake demo fill. With real live orders +90% of the time you will be filled near the low or high of such spikes caused by news events, that's why you need to test it with real live orders instead of unrealistic demo shit.
Oh boy ... If you don't get that those are 2 different strategies with different kind of fills you are beyond help. It's a miracle you became a millionaire in the first place. Have fun losing your money when you try this straddle strategy in a real account.