Hello All, I am new to the future trading and still in the middle of setting up my trading account. I use IB for my stock and option trading. I plan to continue use it for my future trading if it is good enough. I am also planning to get the Ninja trader. On the other hand, some people mentioned that the Zen-fire data feed is the fastest and best. I am just wondering whether Zen-fire is absolutely necessary for scalping YM/ES? Is the IB data feed for emini good enough? Also heard that AMP future and Mirus both carry Zen-fire + Ninja trader but they are expensive. Anyone has experience with them? Thanks a lot.
The Zen-Fire feed is super fast, but it's certainly not necessary for trading the e-minis. IB's feed, when it works, it fast enough. I'm not sure why you think Mirus/Ninja is expensive. Ninja is $60/month for the software (it's free until you execute live trades), but the Zen-Fire feed and the TT settlement fee are bundled into the commission. Not counting the Ninja fee (TWS is free), I pay a little less to Mirus than I did to IB using their unbundled rates. Ninja has great charting and trade management tools, and excellent customer service. The Zen-Fire feed is highly reliable and it's true tick. Backfill is lacking for some of the less mainstream contracts (all of the e-minis are there), but they're usually willing to add a contract to the backfill server on request (the Ninja folks maintain the backfill server). I think IB is fair/good all-around broker. If you want to trade multiple asset classes from one account and/or have a large account balance that would benefit from their generous sweep rates, they're definitely a good choice. I left IB last May because of unstable software and frequent system outages. No broker is perfect, but I've only had one outage in the nine months I've been with Mirus (it only lasted a couple of minutes -- knock on wood). If you're only trading futures, I strongly recommend looking at Mirus. I don't know anything about AMP futures. When I was shopping around their clearing partners didn't offer NYMEX products, so choosing Mirus was a no-brainer. Good luck. Regards,
I notice you didn't mention the financial stability of the broker. Is that unimportant to you? OldTrader
Thanks JangoFolly for your information. I will definitely look at Mirus. OldTrader, the financial stability of course if important to me. I am new to future trading so I will collect as many as information before I open a new account. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks for all you help. I really appreciate it.
NT is free (theres basic and the one with the ATM strategies) unless you wanna use strategies, trailing stops, etc... and the commish is the same as having an acct at IB
Mirus is an introducing broker, clearing through RCG or Dorman -- to my knowledge both outfits are solid. Mirus: http://www.nfa.futures.org/BasicNet/Details.aspx?entityid=0339976&rn=Y CTFC report Dec07: http://www.cftc.gov/files/tm/fcm/fcmdata1207.pdf P.S. If I thought there were a problem I certainly would have mentioned it.
JangoFolly, I also noticed that there are two cleaning firm at Mirus. You have to choose one to open an account. Is there any big difference between RCG and Doman? Which one you recommend? Thanks again for your help.
I was told by a sales person that both are fine but RCG has a better platform for accessing your account information.
As I mentioned I chose RCG because Dorman either didn't clear NYMEX products or they didn't offer NYMEX products with Zen-Fire (not sure which one, but it was all the same to me). I've heard people speak well of Dorman, but unfortunately I don't have any experience with them. I've never had any problems with my RCG account. Money wired in has always been credited to my account promptly and wires out have always arrived promptly. They don't offer ACH for moving money around (I did like that at IB) -- perhaps Dorman does. Their account interface is a bit old fashioned, but it does what it needs to do. Dorman appears to have a cleaner NFA history than RCG (http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/Welcome.aspx). I hope that's helpful.
I had account with Dorman and was pretty happy. However I ended with RCG (they gave me lower comms). Dorman has "cleaner" history simply because RCG is a lot bigger broker and has a lot more dirt to deal with. I am sure RCG and Dorman are equally good firms.