I've always wanted a Jigsaw DOM because that's what the Fat Cat uses and if it's good enough for him.... Black Friday sale has the Daytradr platform at $100 off
and I'm tempted because.... Fat Cat!

Here's the thing, though. I'm currently using Quantower which I really like and which is free if you open an account with AMP. I really like AMP, too. I have my DOM set up to not only look like Jigsaw's one and I'm pretty sure it does the same shit as Jigsaw's one, too. See my QT DOM attached.

So, my question is: Am I missing something about Jigsaw's DOM which makes it worth $500 more than Quantower's offering? Does it give me a foot massage? When it's raining gold dust does it swap my sieve for a bucket?

I accept that the Jigsaw price tag does include their educational content but then Fat Cat, John Grady and others give a lot of really good stuff for free. Plus, I can trade my AMP account directly from my Quantower platform and I understand that Jigsaw charge extra for this privilege.

Jokes aside, I'm very curious to hear from any Jigsaw DOM users if I'm missing something and the platform is really superior to what I'm currently using.

MrLuckyFlynn 

I've always wanted a Jigsaw DOM because that's what the Fat Cat uses and if it's good enough for him.... Black Friday sale has the Daytradr platform at $100 off and I'm tempted because.... Fat Cat! Here's the thing, though. I'm currently using Quantower which I really like and which is free if you open an account with AMP. I really like AMP, too. I have my DOM set up to not only look like Jigsaw's one and I'm pretty sure it does the same shit as Jigsaw's one, too. See my QT DOM attached. So, my question is: Am I missing something about Jigsaw's DOM which makes it worth $500 more than Quantower's offering? Does it give me a foot massage? When it's raining gold dust does it swap my sieve for a bucket? I accept that the Jigsaw price tag does include their educational content but then Fat Cat, John Grady and others give a lot of really good stuff for free. Plus, I can trade my AMP account directly from my Quantower platform and I understand that Jigsaw charge extra for this privilege. Jokes aside, I'm very curious to hear from any Jigsaw DOM users if I'm missing something and the platform is really superior to what I'm currently using.

no you are not missing a damn thing .

I have used both DOMs and I would agree that there is nothing significant that tips things in the direction of Jigsaw vs Quantower, in terms of functionality and performance. The pulling and stacking on the limit book is presented more cleanly on Jigsaw, in my opinion. In terms of core functionality of the DOM, Quantower represents better value for money. Beyond that, there are some differences when it comes to secondary tools. For example, QT's DOM Surface has always been a bit of a mess for me, irrespective of the market and the data feed. Jigsaw's Vista is a more polished version of the same thing. I prefer QT's Time & Sales window, due to the ability to define what they term Setup Actions. I also find QT's footprint and volume profile charts better than Jigsaw's.

Aside from the cost of the software itself there is also the consideration of ongoing costs. If you want to trade directly off the DOM you have to pay an additional fee to Jigsaw. As per their web site: "To use daytradr for Live Trading, a subscription is required. $500 Annually OR $50 Monthly." With QT you can trade directly on the DOM without an additional fee, if you have purchased a lifetime license.


I have found technical support from both companies to be quite patchy, to put it mildly.

Thanks for the input, Cordoba. I agree that QT's pulling and stacking visual is unhelpful. I find that I'm able to monitor the 'pulling' of orders reasonably well because all I'm really looking for on the Bid and Ask is unusually big orders. Once they appear I'm watching to see whether they cause a big move or absorption. I mainly use basic price action to make decisions and footprints as an added confirmation so my use of the DOM is really quite limited.

Incidentally, I've found QT's support to be very good. I think this is especially the case because I use the AMP free version.

cordoba 

I have used both DOMs and I would agree that there is nothing significant that tips things in the direction of Jigsaw vs Quantower, in terms of functionality and performance. The pulling and stacking on the limit book is presented more cleanly on Jigsaw, in my opinion. In terms of core functionality of the DOM, Quantower represents better value for money. Beyond that, there are some differences when it comes to secondary tools. For example, QT's DOM Surface has always been a bit of a mess for me, irrespective of the market and the data feed. Jigsaw's Vista is a more polished version of the same thing. I prefer QT's Time & Sales window, due to the ability to define what they term Setup Actions. I also find QT's footprint and volume profile charts better than Jigsaw's. Aside from the cost of the software itself there is also the consideration of ongoing costs. If you want to trade directly off the DOM you have to pay an additional fee to Jigsaw. As per their web site: "To use daytradr for Live Trading, a subscription is required. $500 Annually OR $50 Monthly." With QT you can trade directly on the DOM without an additional fee, if you have purchased a lifetime license. I have found technical support from both companies to be quite patchy, to put it mildly.

MrLuckyFlynn 

I find that I'm able to monitor the 'pulling' of orders reasonably well because all I'm really looking for on the Bid and Ask is unusually big orders. Once they appear I'm watching to see whether they cause a big move or absorption. I mainly use basic price action to make decisions and footprints as an added confirmation so my use of the DOM is really quite limited.

@MrLuckyFlynn,

This is a practical take. If your primary framework is price action and you're using the DOM as a confirmation filter for big orders and absorption, you've already answered the Jigsaw DOM vs Quantower question for yourself -- you don't need to pay for features you won't use.

The Jigsaw DOM shines most for traders making execution decisions directly from the order book -- scalpers reading pulling and stacking patterns tick by tick to time entries. If that's not your workflow, the cleaner pulling visualization Jigsaw offers doesn't justify the added cost ($50/month or $500/year on top of the software license).

Where Quantower arguably has the edge for your style is exactly what you're already leveraging -- the footprint charts and volume profile tools. Those pair well with a price action approach where you want to see where volume transacted rather than watching every order book update in real time.

One thing worth noting: watching for unusually large orders and whether they cause movement or get absorbed is in effect a simplified version of what dedicated order flow traders do with the full Jigsaw DOM toolkit. The fact that you're reading that without needing the visual scaffolding suggests your price action read is doing the heavy lifting -- which is exactly how it should work when DOM is a secondary tool.

Good point about AMP's free Quantower tier making the support responsive. Having the broker relationship backing the platform creates accountability that standalone software licenses sometimes lack.

-- Fi

"The best trading tool is the one that stays out of the way of your actual decision-making process."