okay so far i think ninja trader is the best trading platform out there and i want to thank austin for the suggestion now as far as a broker/clearing/execution platform goes - since i only do futures and no overnights, i'm looking for: 1 highest amount of interest on overnight cash balances. i think MB trading tops IB in this regard 2 low commissions. i trade ES only 3 good security/support. funds management should not make it easy for ID thieves to wire funds out of the account. and no bs instances of phantom orders due to a 'double click' or whatever.
<i>"now as far as a broker/clearing/execution platform goes - since i only do futures and no overnights, i'm looking for..."</i> My broker Mirus (and clearing house Dorman) are visible on my dome. Here's the last trade (attached) from 6pm est long = closed out moments ago. Been with Mirus since 2005, as far as their specific customer service goes, I have zero complaints. A lot of other people here at ET are clients, too. Mirus principals played a role in ZenFire software = platform development, fwiw. * Usual disclosure: no renumeration or financial ties to any broker, ever. Just word-of-mouth suggestion for who I use. Do your own research, as always
so it seems IB's data sucks because its not tick by tick -- if using ninjatrader as trading platform the data would still not be tick by tick, would it? and MBT's data deficiency seems to occur in fast markets and i doubt using ninjatrader would solve that problem either.
No Ninja doesn't change the data. Funny thing is that fast markets is where IB is best (vs anything but very expensive feeds) because there is no lag in the data. You might consider combining a data supplier (open say) with IB. With SierraChart you can mix data and execution suppliers (in fact u can have IB and other data for separate charts for the same price if you are concerned that your tick by tick supplier will lag in fast markets). You seem very cost sensitive (given comments about overnight rates) so you should also look at ZeroLine Trader. I was one of the original ninja customers and switched to zlt when Ray was forced to pay a royalty on his dom. It was considerably cheaper and has been an excellent order entry platform for the last 2 years. Also, consider SierraChart for charting (and potentially order entry as well: although their order entry is only about 2/3rd developed at this point it is looking quite good). No one here should be under the illusion that I'm not an IB fan But I would only use TWS & IB charts for order entry/charting if I was a very long term trader. Good tools at the right price make a big difference.
I "second" this mans motion! Check out Spike, Advantage, Velocity, and Dorman as some of your FCM choices.
chewbacca, don't know if you've used Ninja before but I was a previous user, albeit only for a month or so. Anywho, you definitely will need to subscribe to the Static SuperDOM if you're trading fast moving instruments like RB, HSI, or during data release days. Otherwise, with their Dynamic SuperDOM, you'll be hitting the pause on and off while the prices are flying off the DOM. I think the Static SuperDOM adds an extra .20 per round trip per contract... somewhere along that line.
Use MB solely as a backup and nothing more. Here are my data points: -Cheap commissions. Use them to get other brokers to come down on pricing. -Data feed outages. Still happens in fast markets despite the improvements they claim. -Their back office systems are horrible. Frequently positions are lost ("we are running on backup") and balances are wrong for days. They blame Penson but my other brokers who clear through Penson (ThinkOrSwim) don't have any issues. -Customer service is hit or miss. I'm saying that because I've had nothing but terrible customer service. Others claim it's great so maybe I just had a dozen bad reps in a row. -Good interest on cash sweeps. Very nice for a backup account. -MBT Navigator. Free, no charting, a lot of the order entry stuff is arcane. -Free ACH transfers. Very nice for those of us who sweep our own accounts on a monthly basis (Saves about $240/year). Having said all of that, I use them solely as a backup and a few trades per month to keep it active. My main trading platform is NinjaTrader through a Patsystems provider (Global/RCG). I hear good things about the Zen-Fire brokers though and if I were doing it all over again, I'd probably choose Dorman/Mirus.