It is a crude yardstick I will grant you that. But my feeling is that most registered users will sign up if there is a free email support group, even if they don't use it much. Obviously many yahoo subscribers will be "lookers" rather than paid subscribers. If I had to guess I would say each group would be split 50/50 which (if right) means Button has around 30 paid subscribers to Ninjas 300 something ...if my assumption is correct. Hence my suspicion that the votes for Button in this thread are coming from people voting more than once under different names, or from people who are not registered subscribers. The main reason I posted the Yahoo numbers is to demonstrate that way, way more people use NinjaTrader compared to ButtonTrader, and at the same point in it's lifecycle that Button is now ....Ninja had way more people using it. Whether you think one product is better than another is a matter of personal taste. But which one is more popular is not in question. There are 10 TIMES the number of people in the Ninja group vs the Button group. If I were a neutral trying to judge which product to go for, that's a figure I'd be interested in.
That is an advantage of using Autotrader with QuoteTracker. Autotrader is a fine program to use for that purpose. QuoteTracker, if you don't have software directly from your broker, is also a fine addition to anyone's toolbox. I've just started using it again, myself. I don't have any idea about the reliability of tick volume data from IB. There has been some discussion that IB's depth of market display lags the main quote display at times. I have found this to be true. However, using QuoteTracker, I have been able to compare IB's tick data display with my DTN tick data display and find the lag and the accuracy of both to not be worth arguing about. That is, IB and DTN satellite both display the same ticks at the same time. I use Quotetracker because it does display the volume whereas DTN does not. So, free plug for yet another trading front end to IB, Medved's QuoteTracker.
I also use IB's datafeed and also don't find it an issue to trade with it. It is a fast datafeed. However, I am fully aware of it's limitations i.e. I know that I am not seeing ALL ticks come into my charting software because it is not a true streaming datafeed. It is missing around 30% of ticks by some estimates. But the way I trade, this doesn't affect me. Sounds like it doesn't affect you either. But what this means for ALL IB front-end products is that 30% of Last prices are missing, 30% of Bid price/sizes are missing and 30% of Ask price/sizes are missing. Stick TWS next to patsystems J-Trader and you'll see what I'm talking about. IB is not transmitting 100% of data from the exchanges. So you can see my point about a front-end product like Buttontrader which touts benefits such as tick volume pressure analysis, can't you?! Such a concept is flawed from the start if the software is being fed by IB's snapshot datafeed!!!
Yeah, I can see now what you are saying. QuoteTracker has a display of "Pressure", but I don't rely on it for anything, really. It's kind of like the DOM display. A little something extra. The real problem to solve with all of these tools is that of becoming a trader. There are a lot of decisions to make in trading. These tools are available to help you implement your decisions. Personally, I'm glad all of these developers are around to write this software, because I sure couldn't!
I never traded futures until this year. Was always a stock swing or longer term trader. I can't believe anyone could daytrade futures without one of these api's. It certainly helped me. Changing targets and stops so crucial when the market is flying is so easy. I think whitchever one works then thats okay but each should be given a chance. For me it's either brackettrader or ninja although I'm using bracket right now. I gave up reading all the button trader stuff. I want to trade not be a software geek.
This does not have to be true at all. 30% is a sample big enough to get a reliable take on the volume pressure. Most popular population polls use samples much smaller and yet they usually get it right. Learn some basic statistics before you offer opinions like that.
i use bracketrader for a very simple reason... it does what i need... get me in and out of the emini quickly AND most importantly allow me to reverse with one click!!!!.. i wanted to use ninja trader but unfortuneatle i am a computer dummy and after doing the download i kept getting error messages. i sat in on ray deux chat one day and must say that simtrader is totally correct that ray provides incredible support. i am still with brackettrader cause i do not have the motivation nor computer talent to get it properly installed. still i wrote this to support what simtrader has said about support.
funny statements. I read your thread as Johnny Rotten, surely Hoi is not the first person you've pissed off
LOLOL! Sorry, but that's just amateurishly obvious! What's your incentive for pushing Ninja like this, huh? Come on, be honest! Not enough said at all! This is complete nonsense. The snapshots with IB don't take long at all. Delay is about 500ms if you're on the edge of the world. IB has the most frequently updated snapshots in the industry, world-wide. Make sure you know what you're talking about before you do so. And I'm not saying that in favor of any product - Since all products here address IB plugins. Unless you're scalping the ES for single ticks, you shouldn't even be thinking about IB's snaphot refresh rate, seriously! And they're already working on improving their snapshots again! Make sure you get things straight before you tout them out as "valid" or "facts". They aren't. And anyway - Your writing style is becoming familiar ... Weren't you already on ET once? I'm getting sceptical about you here. Stop being aggressive, pushing agendas, spreading false information etc. It's not what we need here. Be constructive instead. Scientist.