Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
You need a few days to know how it works but once you know it, you'll LIKE it !!!
But why are they only supporting the IB datafeed ? 4 updates a second ? You've gotta be kidding me, this is 2010!! Not 1995 !!!
I asked them and they replied to me : We have many traders who are profitable scalping on IB datafeed with buttontrader, so we see no use in supporting different datafeeds.... Pffff
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I think this is a policy choice that makes sense! Compare ButtonTrader and Ninjatrader.
NinjaTrader is sort of a jack of all trades device: Works with every broker you can think of, does charting, backtesting, trade execution, automated trading. The only reason that I do not use NinjaTrader to prepare my breakfast, is that my screen cannot pass me over the cup of coffee.
However, with NinjaTrader's success rate for all these various tasks may be around 99%. Would you use an airplane with a success rate of 99%, - only 1 crash per 100 flights?
ButtonTrader is a specialized tool. They are only offering one service, it is an execution front end for Interactive Brokers, and it works. Of course the DOM is ways more versatile than the NinjaTrader DOM, but it won't be suited to prepare your cup of coffee.
I also think that the condensed datafeed of Interactive Brokers has its merits. Fewer ticks means higher stability, and most of the traders do not need the additional ticks. I regret that the realtime data volume of Interactive Brokers is false. Otherwise it would be a top data feed.
The only reason that I do not use ButtonTrader: The monthly fee. Alos I am incapable of using the added value of all its features. But I have tested it over a month and my impression of the product was excellent.
I agree with everything you said, except this. If you are using minute charts only, then the data is fine. But if you are using anything tick based (tick, volume, range, any exotic bar) then IB data is not going to work well at all.
Actually, Mike, I disagree, having traded TF & 6E on relatively fast tick charts (55 / 89t) for several years when I used to trade the US sessions & also 6E & DAX more recently (but I do not use volume). I did in fact find the IB feed to be much faster and more stable during news, at least compared with TradeStation which I ran alongside. You just have to reduce the number of ticks on the IB-fed chart compared with the TS8 one.
I only changed to ZenFire last year because I wanted Mirus' intraday DAX margin. Using as low as 5 tick range charts, I see no significant difference (occasionally 1 tick difference to a swing high or low).
I also like the look of ButtonTrader, which I've been aware of for years, but Ninja has enough for me (used it since v2), even though it makes lousy coffee. I hear some Italians will be launchng BuitoniTrader soon, which makes not only good espresso but also excellent pasta...
Here is my problem with Button Trader. I often like to take small scalp trades, often using trailer entries. The trailer triggers at a certain price point. The IB feed will often miss the extreme tick and so Button Trader will not register that tick and hence the trailer never triggers. So even if I am able to pick the top/bottom exactly my trade is never executed.
I have talked to Robert @ BT about this but they do not plan to support any other data feed. Internally they have an e-signal interface.