For one size fits all I would choose the free E-Futures Int'l which is our white label of OEC trader. It has nice tools and quick DOM for day traders, nice server side advanced orders for swing traders and very nice option chain as well as greeks and ability to place options spreads for option traders. If you have very specific style/needs than the answer will vary. For charts I think sierra is best value for your $$. If you are into order flow, I like bookmap. For auto trading I would use multicharts and or CQG IC ( the one I use but it is expensive). There is also a relatively new platform we will be offering shortly called Orion Trader which I have seen recently when the CEO came to visit and i was very impressed! has ability to run auto strategies in plug and play feature, great DOM, nice charts, has options and can trade stocks and futures from the same screen on quality platform. So it really depends on the trader, what vehicle he needs, what markets he/she trades, style of trading and specific needs but hope what I shared above helps!
Canon Trading already has a direct connection in MotiveWave (supported broker). If you think Sierra Charts is the best value for the $$, then you haven't looked at MotiveWave recently. Our version 6 has a tremendous amount of new functionality surrounding DOM, order flow, and many other features.
Leigh, you are absolutely right! We have more than a few clients using Motivewave with diff. connections and I have 100% satisfaction rate from these clients. We offer a demo and are very happy with MotiveWave as well as other platforms i did not mention. Like I said it comes down to specific needs of the trader.
I'm sorry to say that, but I disagree entirely when you try to compare motivewave to sierra chart. I have a motivewave licence, but I don't use the platform anymore at all, except from time to time when I want to check the new features. For example, you say in many posts that the dom is equivalent to sierra chart, this cannot be true : it is not possible to change the ladder font colors, it is not possible to have a background only coloring a limited number of depth (not the entire column), inability to recenter all doms because it only recenters the active one, it is impossible to show the pnl in anything else than currency value, the price cannot be formated in different way, and so on, not even mentioning the absence of cumulative last traded size which is still used by many traders coming from xtrader. Another thing that some traders will actively consider is the absence of integrated spreadsheet and the java coding which is really not saving ressources on the machine (i could run 100 charts on 2 instances of Sierra chart without even using as much ressources as a single chart on MW does!). I don't say it is not a good platform, otherwise I wouldn't have purchased it, but it is not even close to what SC offers, and I'm not only talking about charting here (historical datas is another main difference).
Thank you for your feedback. Please see above for some comments in blue. For the items that I've noted as Currently True, these seem like they are pretty easy/small enhancements to make. I've put them in as feature requests.
If only swing and day trading stocks, which software would you recommend? Ninja, Sierra or Motivewave? Is there a need for a third party platform at all when trading over IB and using Tradingview for charting? If Tradingview could connect to IB, it would be perfect for me.
Sorry if AmiBroker https://www.amibroker.com/ has already been discussed, discarded etc, but while I never got it for myself I understand that it has tons of features and easy to work with. https://www.amibroker.com/support.html