Using IB datafeed, is NT able to produce accurate price bar charts which do not miss any traded prices, especially for the shortest timeframes? I`m aware of IB`data aggregation methods and how it affects their charts in lag and in accuracy of tick/volume but my interest here is purely price. Any input from NT users would be appreciated. As I intend to use the trial version first, if anyone knew whether there were any differences with the paid one would also be of help. Thanks.
Yes it is. You will not have any issues. That is the setup I use. I have used both the trial and the paid for NT and the only difference is you can do live trading with the subscription.
I missed the HOD price of NQ by 2 ticks because of ???. I'm no expert but saw as NQ spiked up several points (about 4 or 5) in several seconds. About twenty minutes later checked HOD price on web and found my Ninja chart showed 2 ticks less than actual HOD. Then I refreshed the Ninja chart and it went to actual HOD. This is the only one I caught like this but I suspect it happens more often than I know particularly in volatile markets. I'm not complaining at all as I'm on IB's free data (with appropriate trade levels met), and Ninja free charting. But like you, I need to know what can be expected. My charts affected were 5min time frames. I don't recall about the 15min, but suspect it was there too because missed is missed.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Also trade NQ intraday and although I only do several positional type trades a day, as opposed to scalping, it all unneccessarily adds up in terms of slippage or missed exits/entries. The real-time price quotes(bid/ask/last) on TWS platform I believe are accurate. Executions are fast and have never noticed discrepancies. If NT is using that data, the charts should work fine. But the problem Rock experienced is similar to what happens with the IB charts, and would not be computer or connection related. Hmmm. Elsewhere, after reading mostly good things about Zenfire, I also read it sometimes lags IQ feed(same computer). And so now I find myself asking, how are these other feeds compared to the IB feed(with NT or others) regarding price charting in terms of accuracy and now speed? And how much difference could this make?
A downside to IB quotes are they aren't at the tick level but consolidated quotes sent out every few milliseconds. That can be a plus in fast moving markets when other feeds lag though.
OK, tried out NT today. The Good. NT updates the highlighted numerical price on the Y axis in real time while IB`s lags approx less than half a sec. The Bad. NT often misses price levels on the bars. Ex. At 11:45 the NQ 1808.75 was missed. This was on 5 sec and 1 min bars and has not been updated. Luckily, at 11:46 there were about three 5 sec bars there which allowed me to enter short. However, since I hadn`t seen the 11:45 one, if there had only been one bar at 11:46, I likely would have missed entry given no particular indication of a double top or loss in momentum. Perhaps this is only particular to the NT/IB feed setup as I haven`t read any complaints about NT/Zenfire, at least for charting. Suppose Quotetracker or Esignal charts might be the route for me if I want to keep using TWS.