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After many years using NinjaTrader 7 for my automated day trading (with a Kinetick data feed, trading on Interactive Brokers), I'm seriously thinking about switching all my algos from NT to another platform:
- Their customer service has deteriorated over the years, is now very weak, providing generic and often wrong information
- Their affiliation with Kinetick makes them lousy at implementing basic improvements such as access to the latest IB TWS version (which now has improved Tick data)
- They took forever to launch NT8 yet not sure how stable it is for live trading and the migration path from NT7 remains fairly painful
- Etc
I'd be interested in other traders view on the best alternatives. My two key requirements are the ability to perform Automated Trading and Interface with InteractiveBrokers. Many thanks.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
If you are an algo trader you can try Zorro, has a lot of analytical features, but graphically really basic. More for quantish trading. Has IB bridge. For ETF, FX, CFD I have switched from NT7 to IB/Zorro for futures I still trade NT7
I've used Tradestation for over 20 years and never seen any reason to change yet. I do not believe any other platform offers as much flexibility and depth of functionality that Tradestation does. I am obviously very biased, so my suggestion is Tradestation. I have numerous totally automated strategies that run using both Tradestation brokerage and then have an API that executes into Interactive Brokers.
Hope you find a suitable platform that assists in your personal trading journey.
Thanks. I'll have a look again but it was not possible for Canadian to open an account with them last time I checked. Do you know if it is possible to use just use their trading platform without opening a broker account with them ?
I live in Canada and and have had my accounts for years with them. They stopped accepting Canadian accounts a while back when Canada made it too onerous from a reporting perspective. You might still be able to open a futures account with them - I'm not too sure. I know you can't open a stock account. You can use the platform without a brokerage account - I think it's around $250/month - but their support could fill you in on all the details.
You could take a look at Sierra Chart. I recently moved from NT8 to Sierra and I like it much better.
Pros (for your situation):
- Very stable
- Runs with Interactive Brokers (I'm not on IB, so I don't know the details)
- Does not still need more work in order to be a complete platform, unlike NT (although they do incremental updates frequently to fix problems, and tweak or add features, which I think is a plus)
- Very fast, has a small memory footprint
- Has a very complete programming capability, using C++, which is a close relative of C#, to call the functions of their custom programming interface. Does do automated trading. (I do not do automated trading, just some basic indicators, so I can't comment on it. But I have no reason to think it would not be professional, as the rest of the platform is.)
Cons (for your situation):
- There is a steep learning curve. I thought often that whoever designed the user interface should be slowly strangled.
- Also on the learning curve: whoever wrote their online Help should also be strangled, if he's not the same person.
(You do, slowly, get used to it and get to know where things are and how to do them. Eventually I have come to know most of what I need to know, and where to find it. It is actually very complete and extremely detailed, and both the interface and the web site have started to make sense -- but it has taken time.)
- The programming model is entirely different from NT (of course) and it does take some work to figure out how to do things. This is back to the learning curve again. I have worked as a programmer a good part of my career, and it has taken work for me to get to know it. But, as with the other stuff, I am getting there.
- The attitude of support is that they don't suffer fools lightly. They can be notoriously brusque. However, the only time I had to report an issue, they were professional, got on it immediately and had a fix out in about a day. The occasional interactions I have had regarding business matters were completely businesslike. But I had to tell you about their reputation, which has been earned. They do respond well to real issues and to reasonable, informed questions, but they do not want to hold your hand.
The web site will give you a good idea of what you would be getting into. There's a huge amount of information, but a little hard to figure out at first: Sierra Chart
They offer a free 2-week trial (which I took), and will extend it for another 2 weeks if you ask (which I did also.) There are detailed instructions somewhere on the site on how to connect to IB and to whatever your data source is. Trying it out would tell you whether it would work for you. It costs something like 24 bucks a month, a little more if you want some extra stuff. You can check that out also.
I do like it and I'm glad I changed. You should consider yourself warned about the learning curve, though.
I have not done more than quickly sample it, but it does look like they are touching on a lot of different areas and seems to be thorough. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
It's prepared by an Introducing Broker (Optimus Futures) that has a number of FCM's that support SC, so it's prepared for their users. (I have no connection with the firm and I am not making an endorsement.)
Many thanks Bob. I did my undergrad in Computer Sciences years ago but I’m a terrible programmer ;-). I managed to learn NT and I’ll definitely have a look at Sierra.