I plan to start trading eminis, and wonder which broker is good. What is the cost of trading in terms of commission, market data, software etc? Are there any simulation softwares available to backtest your strategy?
I moved to Open E Cry from IB last week, and I've been happy. They have their own DOME with no monthly charge. Commissions are higher than IB or others ($4.80 RT), but I've had no issues with the platform or the feed. Reviews here on ET are pretty good. That said, I'm a small fish. There are a tremendous number of issues to consider when selecting a broker. Perhaps you could post your trade plans (scalping, short term intraday, position trading?) so others more experienced can weigh in.
I just start to learn and have no real strategy yet. I will trade intraday full time, and start with 1 contract each trade. Is the commission flat rate or per contract rate?
The commission rate is per contract. If you're planning to scalp intraday, I'm not the guy to answer your question. From what I've read on ET, the platform, data feed transport, hardware and broker back office issues are HUGE, and I'm sure there are other considerations. For intraday moves of a few minutes to a few hours, OEC would probably be fine, but then so would many other brokers.
You'll probably ignore this advice but don't start trading with real money until you're verified that you have a profitable strategy. I don't know if Open E Cry has a demo account but I know that IB has one. My advice to you is not trade with real money until you have at least two or three months of successful trading using a demo account. Richard
OEC has a demo that simulates the live platform well. It makes good use of a feature (that can be turned off, I think) that gives small text box hints for what your options are when you hover the mouse pointer over the DOM.
what is your monthly volume? Depending on how many r/t you do each month, you could also consider getting free X_Trader platform with Velocity (I am not too keen on them as they are self-clearing firm and haven't been around too long) and Global Futures. This is just a suggestion, not advice or a plug for other brokers. I've been using X_Trader and tried OEC demo recently, some features are really good on OEC and hoping to get them on X_T on ver 7.
=============== VP1997 Rich is right. If profitable on stocks mabe cut papertrading to 1 month; however I STILL papertrade even when real time trading ES. Still Papertrade setups that are not quite as high probability as real time money. Interactive Brokers is excellant; use thier emini charts charts some , BUT NOT with out back up charts. Wisdom is profitable to direct. Use limit orders almost always; it requires me to plan more.