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Initially I went with MD on a trial. I was on to their support almost daily, charts not loading properly, losing stuff I'd saved. At the end of the trial, I decided not to subscribe to MD and instead give the (simpler?) I/RT version a try I don't use footprint charts, so don't really need the MD version.
I did email the issue to I/RT yesterday but haven't got any response yet, my ES charts look like they are using tick filtered data but I have the filtering switched off. My Corn charts are all perfect. This started on the 20th April and I've refreshed the DB a number of times, seen all the data disappear and re-loaded it but it still comes back with about 10 x 900 tick bars per day.
Hopefully, I'll hear back from them today. I have no complaints about the quality of support from I/RT or MD - I'm just a bit fed up with having to use it.
I believe it was DionysusToast that I logged in with remotely yesterday. If so, he should be all set. Let me know if not or if you continue to have problems.
Platform: CTS/T4 (realtime); RT Investor (DTN-MA); POP.calculator (my own prop front end)
Broker: DDT (Crosslands) / Cunnigham - CTS T4
Trading: E6
Posts: 28 since Jan 2012
Thanks Given: 22
Thanks Received: 21
Thought I could chime in as well because over the last 5 months I have moved from Investor/RT to Ninja Trader (NT7) with Rancho Dinero's market profile toolset and now have relicensed Investor /RT and will work with it again for a few weeks before making a final call on what I will keep.
Whatever I keep the Investor /RT or NT7 is a compliment to some custom software that I am working on with an old friend and former business partner (who is actually doing the work: as in the programming) ... still deciding on how we might implement our work which could include integrating to a 3rd party software package like IRT or NT7 or more of as a standalone writing to an API such as Cunningham's T4 ... my little software project is not to be confused with any intent of mine to go (back) into the software business (been there, got that t-shirt) ... just a unique opportunity to develop some software for my own personal use.
Another disclaimer: trading futures is a part-time venture for me (I have a day job) and I (despite having marketed & sold software for many years prior to my current career) am not very good at using software (my motto was always: " never confuse sale with install"). So my comments are colored by my lack of skills and my particular preferences. As a reference to my style: I think one of the 'best' charting apps out there is the web based TradingView.com ... not as fully featured as some but an elegant, modern & intuitive interface.
My thoughts on IRT vs NT7 w/ RD & in no particular order of preference:
1. Both offerings are very good and both appear to be well supported and both appear stable (disclaimer: I have not used either in a live trading environment)
2. I found NT7 to be a more "intuitive" product to configure & use than IRT & it has a more modern feel: parameters are available in a more consistent fashion (also applies to the RD add-on's), there are fewer windows to use in order to configure the software, data and database management appears to be simpler.
3. RTI integrates more functionality into the "base" application and for "profilers" offers more mature & extensive capabilities than Rancho Dinero (which does suffer in small ways by the fact that it is an add-on to NT7). However, RD's capabilities are impressive given its relative youth (less than 2 years I believe).
4. RTI offers multiple and extensive sources of documentation, but it also suffers from having that documentation available in too many different formats and in too many different places. Many of their videos are too long and do not appear to be date stamped. They appear to keep adding to their archive, but never seem to take anything out. Both NT7 and RD have support documentation & videos that are easily accessible and consumable in small bites.
5. RTI is the less expensive offering: $95/mos for the top of line Professional Edition with market profile & historical data backfill. NT7 in trading mode ($60/mos) + Rancho Dinero ($199/ qtr for the Pro Pack) + data backfill (Kinteic $50/mos) will run you ~ $175/mos. Although, if you are not using NT7 in real time then the total costs are more comparable.
6. Which is the better application to use when you are looking to develop custom indicators or add-ons, both IRT & NT7 have scripting tools (don’t know if one is better than another), import / export capabilities ( I believe RTI might win in this regard but I’ll know more in a few weeks) and as for the programming interface NT7 has a very popular and well used interface.
My issues around NT7 and the reason I am trying Investor RT, again: deal mostly with the ability to use the profile tools on custom instruments / imported data. I am experiencing frustrations in that regard with NT7 and hope to resolve them through IRT. Ironically, the fact that I found NT7 to be easier to configure & use has given me the confidence to try IRT one more time.
I just finished a trial period with the Critical Data Volume Profile. My thoughts on it have been that it seems to get the job done;
-It has a lot of options to customize it to your liking
-It has a composite profile, session profiles, and micro profiles.
-It has VPOC and Value areas, session high, low, open and close markers
-It is cheaper at $180 if you compared it with Rancho Dinero at $1200 for a Lifetime membership. However I have not tested Rancho Dinero's to see if it is worth the cost. However, if you don't want to spend that much money, this is a bit cheaper.
-The support I received was excellent and fast.
The downsides I've found are:
-It is clunky and heavy. I have a new, fast computer with SSD and 16 GBs of Ram and it still takes a while for the indicator to load.
-It works with external cache files, not internal to Ninja Trader. This can become a pain.
-I ran into multiple issues using it. Profiles displayed at incorrect locations on the screen, prices bars not showing up, nothing showing up, etc. It took a lot of having to reload historical data, play with indicator settings, reload NinjaScript, etc, to get it to display correctly. Eventually it did display correctly and would work. However every now and then (Usually due to computer crash), this would happen again and I would have to spend an hour clicking trying to get it right not exactly knowing what was wrong or what was fixing it.
-Multiple Micro-profiles are a little weird to display; You need to add a new indicator for each additional micro-profile and shut off all the session and composite profile options to get it to display. Works... just a bit of a pain to do.
All in all, it gets the job done. I'd like to see it be more responsive, use internal data and make things a bit easier to set up, but it is an option for Volume Profile.
I've been working with the Rancho Dinero indicators lately and testing out their volume profiling functionality. Here are my thoughts:
Advantages
-Volume profile, composite profiles, intra-day profiles, micro profiles and range profiles are all available.
-Volume Delta tools
-Market profile tools
-Loads relatively quickly for me, but I am working on a newer build with SSD and 16GB of RAM.
-Feels snappy. I don't feel any lag in the charts when using it.
-Lots of options. I haven't run into too many things that I want to do that it won't allow.
-Good support. Questions were responded to promptly.
-Consistent updates. They are fairly consistent at adding new features and new indicators. They certainly aren't sitting back.
-Some excellent template files help get you started right away.
Disadvantages
-They have organized the indicators into 3 different packs at 3 different price levels. The problem is there may be 1 thing you want to use but it's in the more expensive pack so you have to pay a bunch of money for that 1 thing.
-They could use some more videos on setting up or customizing the indicators.
-They have some interesting reserach articles, but only a couple. It looks like they have forgotten about that.
-They are pricier than other options
Overall, they definitely feel like solid indicators to me. They feel well-built and like a lot of thought went into them. But for the price, if you are just starting out with Volume Profiling, you may want to start with something else first.
So between Critical Data and Rancho Dinero which do you prefer, tickleboy? Critical Data is attractive to me because it's a one time cost. I wouldn't care about the cost except I'm just getting into volume profiling..dipping my toe in the water so to speak. As I become more proficient I'd be willing to get Rancho or IRT. Although on second thought at $99/quarter for Rancho that's really not bad at all to just try it out for 3 months.
Vankar, where I want to migrate to, uses Investor/RT
Rancho Dinero is compatible with NT7 and offers a lifetime license.
The $100 3-month plan at RD is a great deal, but not if you're opening an account at Vankar.
The Market Delta library is huge and open to the public and some are awesome, particularly the ones presented by any of the third party educators. If MD were compatible with NT and Vankar, and had a lifetime license, I would jump at that option.
What difference does it make whether you look at Volume/Market profile on I/RT or RD product. You'll see the same levels. Is it not what counts? On both products you can create composite profiles of different lengths, use a custom profile tool, see the developping value area as a channel etc. The advantage of using Ninja is that you don't need a secondary application to place your orders.