eSignal for charting, IB for feeding data into excel for DOM and Mak's prv.str.neut.squ, and (lol) quotetracker for time and sales data. While I love their data and the way their indicators display on the chart, eSignal's drawing tools have left much to be desired thus far. I've been having trouble with my channel and gaussian drawing as well as labeling end effects and internals with text on the charts. I also haven't found a way yet to put arrows on the chart. Of course, this could be user specific and I'm going to spend hours this weekend going through video tutorials and fumbling around on the charts to get it right. Ensign has been best for me when it comes to annotating because they made it pretty idiot proof. Everything is so effortless and efficient with their drawing, coloring, and text tools, but I don't like the way the MACD histogram displays.
Thanks, Pr0.. I used that method originally but had trouble lining up with the prior end... And if I had to alter a line, ouch! Your charts are so much cleaner than mine - I am drawing all sorts of TLs & Gaussians all over the place. If I could get to your mindset where you can see it in your head, I suspect that I would be much better off. Ah well, practice! Practice, Practice! Using F2 initiates draw mode for one line. There's an option on the NT pull-down menu to check "Stay in Draw Mode" that allows any left click to initiate a line much like QT, unfortunately you cannot do anything else until unchecking it --- very unlike QT. It seems worthless. I am glad it works for folks, and I am willing to keep programming for it. I need to find a good C# book. And since the only way I have to practice off-hours is via NT replay, I will keep forcing myself to use it & maybe my opinion will change. NT did fix v6.5 line drawing in indicator panels, so it is possible to draw Gaussians now, when snap to OHLC is checked. This is good. Cheers!
Alright, I'm trough with it. I've completely had it with MBtrading. Their datafeed is constantly failing and their order servers constantly drop the connection. MBtrading is clearly not the right place for me to trade. I'm now looking for a direct access broker that IS invested in proper infrastructure and who's commissions on index futures match or preferably beat those of MB. Any recommendations?
I've been very slow. But I would like to review the ES and YM from last year, so I can coordinate with the previous thread and already posted comments. I have a folder filled with last year's notes. I'm currently using IB with Amibroker, which can do playback. Does anyone have some sort of ES and YM data from last year that I can acquire to feed into Amibroker? Please PM if you can help. Thanks.
I highly recommend Mirus Futures. Commissions are similar to IB at first, but you can negotiate it down as you start doing more trades. Data feed is great. You get the Zenfire feed for free, which, IMO seems more responsive and faster than IB or IQ were. I've never not been filled within 1 second of clicking the button either. I did have problems one day connecting to the server, but that seems to have been an isolated incident. They offer a free 30 day trial on the data if you want to try it out. For software, you are limited to using Ninja for everything since Zenfire is incompatible with other software. But it does everything we need so far except auto-annotation and stretch/squeeze, all of which can probably be coded in via Ninjascripts. Ninja costs money normally, but you can request a key for the "Direct Edition," which is FREE for live trading but limited in features (no ATM, auto stops, etc... not stuff we are particularly interested in anyway). So with Zenfire and Ninja Direct, monthly overhead is ZERO (plus commissions). Support--by email is VERY slow, but they do answer the phone 24/7, and that's the best way to get in touch. Withdrawals--I think you get 1-2 free checks a month which you have to request by phone. They also offer wires, but I think there's a fee. Statements--I get all mine via email, a few hours after market close. I think they are available on the site as well, but I haven't looked. Requirements: $2500 to open account, $500 day margin per contract (not recommended to use that much leverage obviously!!!)
Anyone else using QT having problems setting up a YM range chart with range = 1, the tick value for YM? Whenever I try to do it resets to 2 and I swear I've gotten it to work in the past. A 0.25 bar range works fine for ES. TIA lj
Thanks for the reply, I've compiled a list of direct access brokers and alot of them are compatible with Ninjatrader. I've used NT for order entry when I was still sim trading (I connected it to my data feed from MBtrading) and I liked the software alot. I haven't checked out the charting capabilities yet, but if I like what I see I'll certainly consider opening an account with Mirus Futures. I don't care about Stretch/Squeeze because I don't use it in my trading. All I use is ES, YM, PRV and DOM. If those are covered I''m happy. A make or break issue though with the Zen-fire/NT data feed is backfilling capability. The MBTrading feed doesn't have this capability and I absolutely hate it. Does Zenfire have this capability? Quotetracker is the software I'm using right now and I love it. Would it be smart to get an external datafeed like IQ feed, plug it in to Quotetracker and use it side by side with Ninjatrader and Zen-fire? I can imagine this could be confusing when different prices get quoted but I wouldn't mind having a back up...
I get backfill of about 15 days it seems. I don't see the point of having a backup feed (QT+IQ) since if Zen goes down, you can't place an order anyway.
I can export the data from my software program, but the size is enormous. e.g. The ESM6 tick in txt is about 18MB zipped.