Zen fire is good technology but it is ALL HYPE. I have use both Zen fire and TT/Fix adapter through Ninja and TT is just as good, a fraction of the price, and the support is FAR SUPERIOR.
Given the same internet connection, only trading 4 instruments, how much better is ZenFire over InteractiveBrokers? Is the difference between ZenFire and IB noticable if trading only a few markets? Or, is the difference only hype?
i agree with Slapshot's comments suggest you speak with Pat Shaughnessy at Mirus and let us know what he has to say
Well, that is my point, I have only a modest PC, albiet a clean, properly functioning one. And for light duty trading, Ninja/Zen works "perfectly". But I can see how some traders may have requirments that exceed the optimal range of load on a platform. However, IMO part of the learning curve of really successful trading is to develop methods that are not dependant on the last millisecond (or every tick) If not, a person will be dissapointed. That edge is way too thin for me. There is too much that is beyond our control. For example, that 10 second delay you spoke of was probably a CME data issue if it only happened the one time. Or it could have been your ISP glitching out. If it was only the Ninja platform limtations or the Zen, wouldn't you most likely experience that issue more often? Just speculating, not trying to argue about it.
Since Ninja/Zen is usually free with most brokers, and the live Ninja is about $60 per month, I don't understand your comment about TT being "a fraction of the price" - TT usually costs hundreds per month either by subscription or in higher R/T costs, right?
Quite right. A retail trader in general cannot compete in the latency wars. Even a trader with very good software skills and lots of experience in high performance real time systems will find it very tough going. For most on ET - just forget it. If you are internet connected, it's not just your ISP - anywhere in the route can cause extra (and possibly randomly occuring) delays - congestion on a router, noisy link, dodgy router etc etc.
My personal experience with trading both of them live is that they are very comparable. The supposed Zen 'advantage' is unbundled ticks, you see the actual individual prints a little better. It SEEMS faster. IB groups them up slightly so you see bigger block prints. It SEEMS slower. It is really a matter of preference. Some people like the Zen because it is a little more precise, others like the IB because it is a little easier to follow on the DOM. This was my experience and others have said much the same thing. Both have had an OCCASIONAL freeze or glitch - which is probably the CME anyway, it is not perfect and transmits its lag through any platform sometimes - especially at news releases. I can say for sure that IB has overall had more disconnects than Ninja Zen, at least through my broker's setup - I can't speak to other broker's setups. But mine has it down very well. Nearly flawless, which is as good as it gets. There is another choke point. There may ALSO be an issue with delays between front-end platform and the 'back office" system (trade confirmations) of certain brokers, their servers, etc. I would go so far as to say there is no data feed or platform that is completely immune to this. If the parent source of the data freezes, so will everything downstream. Again, you have ISP hubs, routers, servers and other issues that will make freezes/lags also.
Zen fire is NOT free. The Zen fire brokers tell you its free and build it into the commission But its far from free. They get charged $1 per round turn up to 500 contracts. Ninja with TT is ususually .30 cost so your round turn commish wil be much cheaper with TT
Exactly - this infrastructure cost is baked into the commission rate and nothing in life is for free. I don't trade size at OEC but I know without even nogotiating their lowest rate is $0.25 per side. You simply cannot get this price using Ninja Trader and Zen-Fire because of the overhead burried in the cost.