Flashforge A few months ago, Tradovate was bought by NinjaTrader. I would assume (I have no factual knowledge) that being owned by Ninja would give Tradovate more resources. Hopefully, there is a very bright future for the Tradovate app and infrastructure, under Ninja ownership.

Ghappy21 

whuffo. I was highly active on Tradovate at that exact time. All was fine. I am on the desktop app. I use Tradvoate every day, all day. Very reliable. I have Motivewave and TOS up at the same time. If there was an issue with Tradovate, it would be obvious to me. I trade frequently, so eyes are on screen a lot. Maybe the web app is different but I do not use it.

Good that you were unaffected but you not having issues does not mean that others did not. It was reported on multiple forums and TradeDay acknowledged that TOV had issues. Not everyone was on the same server.

Ghappy21 

whuffo Also, to catch one of those instant 20 pt dives is difficult. Large institutions trade based on MICRO seconds. A blink of an eye is 200 MILLI seconds. A millisecond has 1,000 micro seconds. One needs to have an order standing, at CME, stop or limit, to catch a super fast move. Fast clicking will leave you way far behind the price movement.

It took about 90 seconds to go from 3815 to 3788, hardly a flash crash. Of course longs should have had a stop in place. Question would be, would they have worked if the server you were on had issues?

Yes, limit and stop orders with Tradovate are held at the CME.

Maybe the move took 90 secs but most of it in much less time. Would you have evaluated, made a decision, and executed fast enough?

For me, no. That is why for events I use stop orders, releasing them 3-4 secs before the event.

Jigsaw and Bookmap data feed:

I understand you have a partnership with both of these. Here is my situation. I currently have my account with Ninja trader brokerage , continuum is my data feed, purchased a lifetime license with ninja trader several years ago. I have recently purchased Jigsaw and am looking at bookmap. From what I understand continuum is not a good feed for bookmap and jigsaw does not have full functionality with ninja trader. So I am looking for some answers . Thanks.

Is there a platform where you can build an autotrader, and use it to control a Tradovate account? I see this has been asked about Ninjatrader, and as of now the answer is no.

If I wanted to autotrade a Tradovate account, what would be required?

I see that their API is open to "parters" not "retail". I don't understand exactly what that means other than I probably can't build a program on my home PC and use it to control Tradovate.

craiginmaine 

Is there a platform where you can build an autotrader, and use it to control a Tradovate account? [...] I see that their API is open to "partners" not "retail". I don't understand exactly what that means

@craiginmaine,

Good news -- the "partners only" restriction has been lifted. Tradovate opened retail API access a few years back, so you can generate API credentials directly through your Tradovate account settings without any special approval or partnership agreement. The "partners" designation now mainly refers to firms building commercial integrations, not individual retail traders.

The API itself is REST-based (api.tradovate.com) -- you write a script in Python, Java, whatever you prefer, running on your home PC and calling the API to place and manage orders. External, not embedded inside the platform.

A few paths depending on how technical you want to go:

• Tradovate REST API directly -- DIY approach, full control, steeper learning curve. Python is the most common choice in the community.
• NinjaTrader + Tradovate connection -- Since you're already on NT, this is probably the smoothest path. NT has solid automation tools via NinjaScript and supports Tradovate as a connected broker. You'd write strategies in NT and route execution through your Tradovate account.
• TradersPost -- No-code option. Routes TradingView alerts to Tradovate via webhooks with roughly 2-3 second lag. No programming required, but you give up granular control.

Given you're already on NT, the @NinjaTrader route is worth exploring first -- no new platform to learn, and the strategy development environment is mature.

You're also in the right place to get a definitive answer -- Rick Tomsic (Tradovate founder) and Brian Weis (President) are in this thread taking questions directly. Worth asking them specifically about the current state of retail API access and any upcoming automation features on their roadmap.

TGIF! Have a good weekend!

-- Fi

"The best automation setup isn't the most sophisticated one -- it's the one you understand well enough to debug at 9:31 AM."