Really, I wasn't aware of that. Could you provide more information on this comparison? I don't use either so I'm totally non-bias.
I don't want to limit myself. I'm implementing a scalping setup from a book and I plan to backtest it. I'm learning a lot from this, even if I don't end up trading it. So anyway, I don't want to learn a system and then outgrow it.
You actually told me a lot. I'm glad you mentioned writing indicators, cause that what I was doing this evening. I didn't think I would need to do it, but I am implementing a trading algorithm from a book and I thought rather than just write a huge thing it'd be better to be more modular and write indicators for the small bits and pieces. I'm using NinjaTrader for the moment. One thing that I really like about it, that I haven't really thought of before, is that I can use NinjaTrader with several brokers transparently. Several people mentioned IB's book trader for the DOM, but then I got to learn a separate system for IB & also the same for MB Trading. So far it's going well with NinjaTrader. It's pretty intuitive to use, I really like that. I have more money than time right now so I'm thinking if I'm quicker with it then the $1k lifetime license fee is probably not a bad deal. AmiBroker, which also turned up in my searching, is about $250. For the difference, I'll take whatever is easiest and quickest to use. I'm still researching differences between AmiBroker and NinjaTrader. From what I've seen, I can do everything I would want with NinjaTrader. The only thing taht I'd have to go elsewhere for is to have stock screens from the entire universe of stocks. Thanks for your input.
Not for long. Are you aware of this? http://www.ninjatrader.com/webnew/trading_platform_ninjatrader_free.htm You can use Ninja FREE. Not free for one month, but free indefinitely so long as you dont use it to make trades (which I suggest if you do intend to make trades). Think of Quotetracker on Steroids. And beta 6.5 which will soon be released you will get this... http://www.ninjatrader.com/webnew/trading_software_market_analyzer.htm NinjaTrader has come a LONG ways. Amibroker is good too. Especially for backtesting.
I'm already using 6.5 beta 9 but I haven't played with the analyzer yet. I'm developing a custom indicator so that I can use it with the analyzer. As for being free, I plan to do live trading so i'll have to buy.
Thought I'd post an update for those interested. This week I used NinjaTrader, MB Trading's software, and IB's software. I set up a watch list in MB Trading but MB crashed when I tried to export it. As a result, I lost it. Considering it took over half our to make, I was very disappointed. Same thing happened with IB. TWS stopped at midnight and when I reloaded it, my watchlist was gone. I don't really have tolorance nor patience for this kind of thing. The software should be idiot proof. that said, MB Trading was very intuitive and I was able to learn it without reading any documentation. I really like that. IB's TWS is very unintuitive and it's not easy to learn. I understand that an investment is required here, but it's hard to do when IB is "down" all weekend (I'm in France so they come back online Sunday night at 6pm). I used NinjaTrader for all my charting. I have this love/hate thing with Ninja. The charting is pretty good, I like the drawing tools. But I end up with too many windows on my desktop and also it seems I have to click several times to get at stuff. Hotkeys should help with that. I took a look at QuoteTrader but to be honest the ads are annoying as heck and I just didn't get into it. A trading application is serious and ads are distracting. Same for QuoteTracker. I would have liked to evaluate it but it doesn't work with OpenTick or Yahoo. Since IB is down and MB doesn't have backfill, I'm out of luck for using QT on the weekend. I also find the interface of QT very cluttered. They "maximize" screen space at the expense of cluttering it up. So now I come back to NinjaTrader, the only one that will work on the weekend for me. $1000k is a lot more than the others, but I'm still thinking it's nice to have everything in one single application: backtesting, trading, etc. One new criteria I have is to do alerts. I want to set an alert for example "when a stock makes a higher high on above average volume". I couldn't figure out how to do it with QT. I could do price or volume but not both. I'm now looking at how to do it with NinjaTrader. I want to do my scans on the weekend and set up alerts and then during the week I'll be alerted when a setup is met and a trigger fires. Seems simple doesn't it? If anyone has more advice or recommendations based on the above, please let me know.
Ninja trader is nice. Trading from the chart for manual scalping is really their best feature with the automatic bracketing of trades. I can't imagine manual trading with Openquant at all, in fact I have Openquant for testing and automation and I use the free charting from Ninja when I want to check out things visually. Ninja is so easy to program once you get used to it, you can crank out an indicator in a couple of minutes. To properly use Openquant and get past the cluttered feeling you need two or more computer monitors, just double click the top of any window and move it to the other monitor, configured like that it is very uncluttered and easy to navigate.... Sierra charts is a power tool... but all those softwares that don't program in C# are antiquated imo.... speaking of programming Openquant is set up to be event driven, I have found that to be the single best thing I like about it.. I can code up a system much, much better and much quicker with the event driven architecture than I ever could in any other environment.
I am aware of the Platforms you mentioned and have used all but have you ever looked at Tradestation I have left them many times but always returned You can not beat there charting, I have been trading over 10 years and have tried everyoneâs platform They do have there set of issues like all do and maybe it is just that I have a couple of indicators that will only work with T.S and would never trade without but all in all commissions are good no real issues unless you have a slow comp. they are not the best with older comps. Just my 2 pennies Joe
the best over the the best is MT4; but no feed for it aside bucketshop. What a shame. I'am from MT4 world, i tested TS, multicharts... it's a joke comparing to mt4 beauty and power. Thousands and thousands of indicators and EA's; everything existing in the trading world is available and free for MT4. BUT no FEED.