# Trading platforms



## lindsayf (13 November 2008)

Hi
I am looking to start trading the SPI200 futures index and SP500 emini futures index and possibly others, in the next 6 months.  I have a background in TA in stock trading and I am currently doing simulated trading on a couple of platforms and looked at others and it seems each has thier plusses and minusses.  Ideally what I want is a platform/broker combination that gives me:
*no spread trading - ie I prefer to pay a commission rather than have a spread between buy and sell price.
*Visual - ie on the bar chart - record of trade entry, exit and stop positions of open trades
*clear record of executed trades for later analysis
*good drawing function
*wide indicator rang including the basics of Vol and OBV
*trailing stop function
*profit target function
*user friendly account/financial position details
*trades executed from the chart or chart visible when executing trade

At this point Ninjatrader seems to meet the most of my criteria..but not all, at least on the demo version.  Another I really liked was GCI but it didnt provide for vol or OBV and traded the SPI with a 5 point spread.

Any information greatly appreciated!

Many thanks
Lindsay
God knows how I ended up with that username (something about registering at 3am I guess) but  I guess it will do for now.  If anyone wanted to PM me that would be fine if you didnt want system details on the forum..cheers


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## lindsayf (14 November 2008)

Hey Mr Mod
Could you move this to "trading and Investing resources"
sorry bout that


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## lindsayf (15 November 2008)

Hi guys
Perhaps I need to rephrase the question?
Can anyone suggest a platform/broker or 2 that is known (by those experienced in index trading) to be reliable, functional and not too expensive to set up?

I would really appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks from a new chum who is at research stage.


cheers all


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## MRC & Co (15 November 2008)

lol, if you want all you mentioned, you may want to cough up some HUGE bucks and get it custome designed!

But a broker/platform as stated in the last post, most use IB for execution and data.  NinjaTrader or Amibroker for the rest as far as I know.


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## professor_frink (15 November 2008)

lindsayf said:


> Hi
> I am looking to start trading the SPI200 futures index and SP500 emini futures index and possibly others, in the next 6 months.  I have a background in TA in stock trading and I am currently doing simulated trading on a couple of platforms and looked at others and it seems each has thier plusses and minusses.  Ideally what I want is a platform/broker combination that gives me:
> *no spread trading - ie I prefer to pay a commission rather than have a spread between buy and sell price.
> *Visual - ie on the bar chart - record of trade entry, exit and stop positions of open trades
> ...




Does sound like ninja would be the obvious choice here. What exactly didn't ninja do that you were looking for?


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## >Apocalypto< (15 November 2008)

Gomarkets also offer the SPI. 

I am 85% sure they offer it on Metatrader 4 

cha cha cheers


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## professor_frink (15 November 2008)

Actually now that I think about it, Sierra Chart have been heading in a direction that was seeing them having some similar features to ninja, built in DOM, chart trading, sim trading. Not sure if they have enough to make them a rival for ninja, but might be worth checking out

And I'm also talking about using these with IB for execution/data too.



			
				 MRC & Co said:
			
		

> lol, if you want all you mentioned, you may want to cough up some HUGE bucks and get it custom designed!




Don't laugh, I've actually been thinking about doing just that!


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## MRC & Co (15 November 2008)

professor_frink said:


> Don't laugh, I've actually been thinking about doing just that!




Big spender Professor!  Good to hear your doing well.  

I know TT and GL trader (the later would probably be best for custom design) will look at custom design specifically for you, but I imagine you would have to be doing HUGE lots or pay them some healthy coin.


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## professor_frink (15 November 2008)

MRC & Co said:


> Big spender Professor!  Good to hear your doing well.
> 
> I know TT and GL trader (the later would probably be best for custom design) will look at custom design specifically for you, but I imagine you would have to be doing HUGE lots or pay them some healthy coin.




Haven't sampled either of those 2, maybe they should be my first port of call.

It's just a thought at this stage, I have no idea what it would cost(though imagine it wouldn't be cheap).  Not sure if I'm doing quite well enough to warrant that kind of spend at this stage, will find that one out if I get it costed. Think I'm going to start doing a bit of networking to see who I may know and find out a bit more info on it. A custom built package that combined the best bits of Quotetracker/ninja/zerolinetrader/amibroker would be freaking awesome though


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## MRC & Co (15 November 2008)

Yeh, definatley check the two of them if I was you Professor.

GL definately the best way to go for customization I believe.  Not to mention (think I remember you talking of trading the HSI), GL has the fastest execution speed of any platform from what I hear.  

TT is the BOMB for the SPI.  Though no stops suck.  It's what most SPI daytraders use, except for TH, who is a freak and can get the job done on any platform!

Oh, BTW, both only good for execution.  

Charting, no idea.  CQG I think is meant to be the 'best' and is the most expensive.  Has a STACK of features (though I use barely any of them and find it pretty unreliable), may want to check it out.


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## skyQuake (15 November 2008)

Hey professor, I've tried both GL and TT; Both have their advantages and pitfalls and both cost around $500/month (or less if u do a certain number of trades or something; depends on who provides it etc)
What markets do you still trade?

Cheers


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## lindsayf (16 November 2008)

MRC & Co said:


> Yeh, definatley check the two of them if I was you Professor.
> 
> GL definately the best way to go for customization I believe.  Not to mention (think I remember you talking of trading the HSI), GL has the fastest execution speed of any platform from what I hear.
> 
> ...



......

What is the go with no stops for the SPI...I looked at another platform that didnt offer at market buy or sell, or any stop loss/profit target function...just limit and stop limit orders...?  On that basis I ruled them out...they said it was a SFE issue and they had no choice..this sounds strange..  I have yet to confirm if Ninjatrader provide stops on the SPI.  Hope so.

I have spent several hours doing sim trading today and have found that Ninja has everything I want...so will probably go with them and IB.

thanks


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## MRC & Co (16 November 2008)

Sounds like a good choice Lindsay.

SFE issue on SPI regarding stops.  Can't do anything about it.  Crap though, means you get swept without being able to get out in time manually, on occassion.


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## lindsayf (17 November 2008)

well that dissapoints me!!
Because as a beginner there is no way I am going to trade in a futures environment without a stop loss ...looks like UK and USA time zones for me I suppose....

Has no one ever found a work around for this?


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## professor_frink (17 November 2008)

MRC & Co said:


> Yeh, definatley check the two of them if I was you Professor.
> 
> GL definately the best way to go for customization I believe.  Not to mention (think I remember you talking of trading the HSI), GL has the fastest execution speed of any platform from what I hear.
> 
> ...






skyQuake said:


> Hey professor, I've tried both GL and TT; Both have their advantages and pitfalls and both cost around $500/month (or less if u do a certain number of trades or something; depends on who provides it etc)
> What markets do you still trade?
> 
> Cheers




Cheers for the info gents, looks like I have some investigationing to do

Sky, I mainly trade the nikkei, though am keeping an eye on the HSI for when volatility drops off in the future, as the nik can be a freaking b!tch to trade when the daily range dries up. 



lindsayf said:


> well that dissapoints me!!
> Because as a beginner there is no way I am going to trade in a futures environment without a stop loss ...looks like UK and USA time zones for me I suppose....
> 
> Has no one ever found a work around for this?




If you are using IB you can use stops for the SPI. When an exchange doesn't support things like stop orders, you can still use them, but they won't be held at the exchange level, IB simulate them they will be executed via their server. Generally this won't be a problem, but it can leave you exposed if there is a problem with IB's data feed, or if their server goes down. Having said that, I've only ever had 1 serious problem with this in the 2+ years I've been using them(and it was with the HSI, not the SPI). 

Best thing to do would be to check with IB on this issue(I'm far from an expert on exactly what orders are executed at the exchange and which IB simulate)


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## barney (17 November 2008)

lindsayf said:


> well that dissapoints me!!
> Because as a beginner there is no way I am going to trade in a futures environment without a stop loss ...looks like UK and USA time zones for me I suppose....
> 
> Has no one ever found a work around for this?




Gidday Lindsay,   Sounds odd re no stop function ..... Why not just set a counter market order at your desired (stop) level ....... ie If you are long, just set a short order at what would have been your stop level. Same net result. Cheers.


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## MRC & Co (17 November 2008)

Barney, that is a stop order.  You can only enter a sell order above market.

But as Professor says, some platforms hold the stops themselves.


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## barney (17 November 2008)

MRC & Co said:


> Barney, that is a stop order.  You can only enter a sell order above market.
> 
> But as Professor says, some platforms hold the stops themselves.




Cheers M, ..... I've been using CFD's too long haven't I  .............


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## BentRod (17 November 2008)

skyQuake said:


> Hey professor, I've tried both GL and TT; Both have their advantages and pitfalls and both cost around $500/month (or less if u do a certain number of trades or something; depends on who provides it etc)
> What markets do you still trade?
> 
> Cheers




What are th drawbacks with MD Trader ?

Also, what do you and MRC use for scalping?

cheers


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## skyQuake (17 November 2008)

BentRod said:


> What are th drawbacks with MD Trader ?
> 
> Also, what do you and MRC use for scalping?
> 
> cheers




Not sure about MRC, but I use my lucky coin. Heads = Buy, Tails = Sell. Very good win ratio. You seem like a nice guy, so i'll sell it to you for a bargain price of only $25,000... Buy now and receive a sugar coated toothpick... also if you pay by cash you get not 1 but 2 FREE steak knives and a book on EW...
:


Anyways, TT is good. Can't say anything bad about MD trader atm, but it is a bit slow for some international markets. You won't get filled for a few orders. GL Trader is noticeably faster for the HSI so I'm using that now.

Cheers


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## BentRod (18 November 2008)

> Not sure about MRC, but I use my lucky coin. Heads = Buy, Tails = Sell. Very good win ratio. You seem like a nice guy, so i'll sell it to you for a bargain price of only $25,000... Buy now and receive a sugar coated toothpick... also if you pay by cash you get not 1 but 2 FREE steak knives and a book on EW...




Where do I sign BigBoy?    :



> Anyways, TT is good. Can't say anything bad about MD trader atm, but it is a bit slow for some international markets. You won't get filled for a few orders. GL Trader is noticeably faster for the HSI so I'm using that now.




Thanks mate.

Do you have a link to GL Trader ? 
Must admit I have never heard of it, I always thought X-Trader was the Schiz.

Regarding scalping in general, where would you suggest a raw Novice to start?

I've read that one has to watch the DOM and get a feel for the order flow.

Do you know any guys that trade straight from the DOM without charts??

Cheers


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## skyQuake (18 November 2008)

http://www.gltrade.com/en/

If you are raw novice, probably start with IB; GL and TT are quite expensive, though TT does have a simulator.
Cheers


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## BentRod (18 November 2008)

Thanks Sky.

I've tried the X-trader Sim before.

Do you know any traders that use the DOM only ?? (no charts)


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## skyQuake (19 November 2008)

I'm sure there would be a few, but I've lost money when i tried to just trade off DOM and T&S haha. Still too green to know the tricks.
Just be aware that in the Sim u get instant fills which is a fair bit different from the live mkt.


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## BentRod (19 November 2008)

> Just be aware that in the Sim u get instant fills which is a fair bit different from the live mkt.




Thanks for this 

Do you know anyone that scalps ZN or FGBL, or do most stick to indicies?


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## Wysiwyg (19 November 2008)

Well I`m greener and no MD is like driving partially blind.Suppose I have to learn how to drive the Kombi before the Porsche.

Thanks MRC & Co. for the trade tech info.


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## lindsayf (21 November 2008)

just on the SPI...for those that trade it through IB, what is a typical buy/sell spread at high volume times like first and last hour of the day?

thanks
Lindsay


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## MRC & Co (21 November 2008)

Bent, I use TT.  

Wysiwyg, no problems mate.  I don't get what you are talking about as far as MD, but if it's just market depth, you get this on IB.  Really need it to time your entries/exits based on what you are aiming to do first off the chart.  

Lindsay, IB bid/ask spread is the same as any spread on the SPI as it is just the live market, but in those peak times, it's impossible to say.  Different spreads on different days and within the first and last hour you get completely different spreads.  Can be anywhere from a tick, to several ticks (obviously when it is that big, you never cross the spread).


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