Hi everyone, I have recently begun to venture into equities from futures and currently hold an account with Interactive Brokers because of their extremely low stock commissions. Im looking for a trading platform that offers quick views of symbols listed in scanner screens as well as chart trading for quick entries off of multiple charts. IB support says you cannot link a scanner window to a chart and click symbols to view their charts (only in watchlists etc -- cant try it out yet as I am in the mist of refunding my dormant account). I believe Esignal can do it but Id rather not spend $200+ a month on data and charting as I am still in the infant stages trading 100 share lots. If you guys could give me some options and opinions of compatible software I would greatly appreciate it!!
Its interesting that you are venturing from futures to equity trading. I'm trading stocks via eSignal with Ameritrade as the broker and although I like eSignal, I'm not impressed with Ameritrade's execution speed, fill prices and commission per trade. Would you mind telling me what you think of IB? It appears they charge you for each cancelled trade - what has your experience with them been like? Sorry I can't suggest any other trading platform because I've only used eSignal thus far.
I don't know of specific platforms that do everything you want, but there is a lot of software for IB on the market. You might have a look at NinjaTrader, which is user-programmable. One of the reasons IB is so popular is that they have a free API that can be programmed to do whatever you want.
Umm I dont believe they charge for cancelled US Equity of US Futures orders but you will have to check. I am only demo trading right now and I see now "hypothetical" deductions for cancelled orders in my daily P&L. I have just been sticking with TWS and Mosaic for charting. I have used Ninjatrader with AMP to trade futures and its an excellent platform and I love their charting and DOM. In my opinion though, its very much geared for futures trading (or small number of instruments traded) as you cannot easily click on watch lists to change charts and DOMs like in Esignal or TWS (that I am aware of). TWS's booktrader isnt too bad once you get used to it. Lots of functions and order options and hot keys. We will see how it goes!! Maybe Ill use NT for charting my main instruments and TWSs booktrader for order placement TWS charts and indicators have very limited functionality.
what? appears where? it's only for directed orders via API and if you read fine print carefully-they will credit it back,if trade was executed
The cancellation fee for equity options is $0.01 per order, not per contract. Unless you're doing HFT, it's not a significant hit. I traded SPX options about 10 years ago, and the cancellation fee then was $0.10 per contract. I don't know about now.
Sounds like IB might be the right choice for Stock trading via eSignal. Naturally, I'll only know for sure once I try it out and will update this post then. I'm planning on signing up for IB. Thank you all for the insights. IB seem to allow Short Sales for margin accounts (>25K?) and I'm told the commission of $0.005/share holds true for the Flat Rate pricing even when trading via eSignal (API) as long as Smart Routing is used. Only question now is whether the IB Security device will hinder the eSignal API in any way? Hoping not, since they are designed to work in an integrated manner.