I'm getting set up with some new accounts and looking to get some advice about better ways to go about this. I'm coming from working in a prop firm for ten years where everything from platforms to data feeds etc. was preordained, so I'm trying to get best info going forward while I do it on my own. I am mainly going to be trading futures in a variety of strategies, most of which I will be programming in C#. I like the reviews that I have read on here for using IB (low commissions, reliable platform), and I want to use that in combination with Ninja Trader so I can program my own automated strategies, and use their backtesting functionality. From the reviews that I have read on here, it seems that I may also want to use another advanced charting software such as MarketDelta (I used Tradestation and CQG for years for their charting methods), since it seems that IB and NT do not have the best charts. Also, I am going to be using real tick data, which I have found that IB does not have, thus I will need the data feed from another provider. Questions: Does this seem like an overly complex system where I am just missing something, or is this a fairly standard way of getting a solid setup? Is Kinetick reliable, and a good choice to use in this system, or would IQFeed from Telvent DTN be a better idea?
At retail level, multiple charting software and feeds is a standard approach. I think Kinetic is actually IQfeed data dressed as Ninja following some branding agreement. I have never used Ninja myself, so please wait for Ninja users to confirm this. For charting you can also look at SierraChart: http://www.sierrachart.com/ http://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=doc/data.php http://www.sierrachart.com/supportboard/forumdisplay.php?f=94 It allows opening gazillion charts in multiple instances of application, with each instance connected to a different feed (IB, IQfeed, Barchart, FXCM, TransAct, OEC, etc.). It supports tick charts, trading from the chart or DOM, C/C++ programming, has all data stored locally on the hard drive, very low memory/resources footprint, and no settings wired to Windows registry (so you can easily move the data or the whole application between partitions or computers). It's weak spot is system back testing, so you would probably need Ninja for that. You can also check AmiBroker, it's designed from the start as a system testing and data mining package: http://www.amibroker.com AB has very active user forums on Yahoo, you would need to google that.
If you need any tick data, you're going to use marketdelta or another bid/ask volume charting package (ie - anything that uses footprints) IQFeed is a must. Kinetick is not IQFeed and not of the same quality. Don't cheap out on the data whatever you do. CQG data is top notch aswell. Note that you can get the same type of marketdelta charts on Ninja trader but I have heard lots of complaints about NT support issues. I think there are some threads about it on bigmikestrading. The NT guys are slow to update to the latest TWS builds as well. NT is quite a bit cheaper then marketdelta, however. Also backtesting in marketdelta is a big pain and I do not believe you can just code the strategies. In any event your set up is pretty standard. Sierrachart looks like a solid package but I have no experience with it.
With SierraChart, bid volume and ask volume data is stored on the hard drive, it's part of the data file, and there are several related indicators available. Time & Sales data, on the other hand, is only stored in RAM, so once you shut off Sierra, it's gone. IQfeed is considered the best tick feed among SierraChart users. Lately IQfeed started to offer Globex exchange fee wavers for IB/Sierra combo. I don't know how the latest AmiBroker handles bid/ask volume data, I haven't upgraded it for a long time. MarketDelta looks interesting but I have never had a chance to try it out. You would need to check a few software packages and see what works best for you. Most trading packages offer at least some kind of free trial.