I'm still in the process of figuring out what direction I want to go. I know that I want to use Jigsaw. For the rest of it, I have narrowed it down to three choices:
1. Use an IB like Optimus futures - they can hook me up with Jigsaw and provide everything else needed to get started including their own platform for charting needs.
2. Use AMP + Jigsaw and probably one of their free charting offerings.
3. Ninja trade + Jigsaw + TD Ameritrade

Number 3 is the most recent addition to the choices. I have a TD account and I could connect it to Ninja trader. But, forgive the ignorance here, why would I do that? Is it just for the data feed? Wouldn't Rithmic or CQG provide a better connection? Would TD be the broker for the Ninja account? Can my TD account balance be used to trade futures through Ninja Trader? What is the advantage (if any) to using TD as the data feed or possibly the broker for Ninja trader? I'm confused about how this works. Also, this is the most expensive approach. So that is my main question.

My other question is: Optimus vs Amp seems like a draw. The difference in price and services provided is minimal, with the exception that Optimus possibly has better customer service. Am I right about this? I did reach out to Optimus on Saturday and have not heard back yet.

Thanks for the guidance in advance!!

I am not completely sure, but pretty sure, that new Ninjatrader customers can only trade through Ninjatrader using the Ninjatrader brokerage so " Can my TD account balance be used to trade futures through Ninja Trader?" probably wouldn't be an option.

I don't know if Ninja could use the TD data and then Jigsaw uses the Ninja data? But why use Ninja as it doesn't sound like your first choice anyway. Presumably TD has some charting capability. And there is currently a Jigsaw Beta version of Jigsaw daytradr available with some charting capability (don't know what, haven't tried it).

There was also a recent Jigsaw post about the number of data connections allowed before professional fees kick in ( https://www.jigsawtrading.com/blog/cme-data-fees ).

More questions than answers in the end