i already answered your question- if you wanted to know what amateurs used you should have asked that. after asking what "seasoned" traders use and getting a response of what "pro's" use most people stopped reading assuming the question was answered already
I'm having great experiences with the modern Tradestation system. They are even offering to waive all platform fees for the life of the account (!) so you just pay for data and commissions (~$3 per mo & .001 per share).
I only trade futures.......X_Trader for execution, IQ Feed for data and I R/T for charting. Somebody mentioned CTS T4, I plan on trying it at some time, I have heard good things and I know they are working on an auto spreader.
I am using Rithmic/Rtrader for execution and NinjaTrader for charting/execution. really fast execution, and stable. I think you can plug rithmic to most platforms. RG
Using zen-ninja for Futures, love the on-chart easy execution/drag and drop function. Never had a problem, May 6 2010 everything was flawless with no lag. Newer to forex, been using oanda online platform for the time being. Pretty good but one complaint is bending over right before news they widen spread a lot so i've been avoiding trading before news release or having to get out of already profitable positions prematurely. Have been interested in trying tradstations portfolio backtesting for longer term stuff.
Lol. XTrader is the most widely used all-in-one, out of the box solution. It's an easy and obvious choice for someone interested in trading on a few different exchanges and without the funds/resources to implement a more advanced solution.
i use das trader pro. fast execution, usually fast data, custom watchlists, and decent charting. das is at a few brokers, so once you're set up on das and find a better deal at another broker, it's easy to migrate your customized set ups