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I use both NT8 and Tradestation 10.
I am disappointed with Ninjatrader .They advertise that their platform is free.
But it is misleading. In the "Free" version many functions are not available (ATM,Order flow etc).
They are available only for the buyer of lifetime licence at a price of 1100 $ or leasing quarterly.
Why they do not offer a monthly subscription?
In free version the commission are higher considerably than in lifetime version ,sometimes double..
It seem to me they are very greedy .They are pushing the sale of the platform and of indicators.
They charge many hidden fees like margin violation in futures trade of 50 $ for each violation.
Many other brokers do not charge these fees ,just liquidate the position.
Now many brokers cancelled commissions totally.
One think good in NT is the low margin for futures trade .
The connectivity with Tradestation 10 do not exist in NT 8.(was in earlier versions)
We can not not send orders from strategies running in Tradestation automatically to Nt platform.
Writing a code is difficult in NT8 especially for a beginner
So it is mandatory to check the cost in trading in NT before your decision.
I code in EasyLanguage and PowerLanguage and use both platforms for trading stocks. I use NinjaTrader for trading futures. I like the graphics, OrderFlow tools, third party indicators and especially BloodHound. I am retired from the IT industry and don’t feel like learning another programming language, C#. BloodHound and BlackBird alone would be reason enough for me to use NinjaTrader over any other platform.
A few months ago I created two strategies that needed to run simultaneously and trade the same instrument in different directions and required they communicate pnl, if in hand, if so what direction, and other variables. Or perhaps you need access to an external API? These out of the box requirements are generally only available in full fledged programming languages.
That said I wish NT had support to run on Electron or a web browser so you could run on multiple operating systems. If I had no need for backtesting or automated strategies I'd likely be all over Trading View.
Too many expect everything to be free. Got news guys, trading takes discretionary money. Money to burn.
Don't like their business model? Take your business elsewhere. I also had my complaints with NT with it not doing what I wanted some years back, for my own algo trading. So I built my own platform. I mean seriously, put up or shut up sometimes really is the only answer.
Your post just got my attention because of your complaint about not being free and charging per quarter instead of monthly. It reminds me too much of people here on FIO that think $100 for 400 hours of webinars, thousands of indicators, and hundreds of thousands of posts -- is too expensive for lifetime access. What?
Those people shouldn't be trading. I mean seriously, it's not about you giving money to the community. But if your dedicating so much of your life to such a money-driven profession, how is it you can sweat the small stuff? Or if you truly don't like the community, then don't be here... Same would translate to NT in this case, just move to a better platform if your so sure one exists.
Dont know multichart. But know NinjaTrader + SierraChart in every detail. I started out with NT as many people do and went over to SC for a lot of reasons after a while.
My strong advice: dont fall into the NT marketing trap. They seem to be the leading platform for retail traders, but they are defently not. EXCEPT MARKETING I can say with confidence that SC is better in every single aspect:
- much more functionality, at least everything NT provides
- far better performance and stability
- Far better pricing
- more brokers available SC. At NT they try to push you to NinjaBroker.
Only aspect that might argue for NT is an easier platform handling at first glance. Here SC has some potential left to improve. But in my opinion they focus on the core, not the surface as NT does. Besides this is also a result
Of the the greater flexibility provided by SC. It needs some initial work to setup the platform. But after that its easy to handle.
I know if visiting both websites its hard to imagine that SC is that superior but its truth.
If you dont beliebe me and decide for NT, rent the platform, dont buy!!! Otherwise you might regret later.
The OP pointed out the coding problems with Ninja, not the problems with the company in general. Ninja is a fine platform if you don't want to do serious coding. I personally don't like to code and I certainly don't want to spend my time learning C++. But in this business you have to learn to test and to test you need to code. Since there's a very good alternative in TradeStation and MC, why not use them? You can use both. You're not confined to one or the other. You don't have to open an account with TS any more to use their platform. You can lease it for $99 per month if you only want it for development.
I'm sure EL language was expensive to develop. That's probably why Ninja doesn't want to develop a similar application. And I don't blame them - why reinvent the wheel when there's one out there.
It is 100% the custom development platform. If you are not familiar with C# then I can see how a few things might seem confusing at first. It is not just a scripting language like some platforms use. Once you get into it though it makes perfect sense and the power becomes apparent.
The number of custom indicator's and elements available for the platform is just unreal. Look at what's here on the forum and realize that's maybe 10% of what's out there. The platform allows for relatively advanced indicarors too. Its methods for dealing with orders and level 2 data makes order flow indicator's trivial to create. You can even create your own windows or draw your own chart types. I don't really feel that developers have truly tapped into the power. People have been writing complex elements like footprint charts in Ninja from the start, and those are relatively straight forward things to write. That's only a few days work for an experienced programmer. Imagine what a team of dedicated developers could do with it. There's still plenty of unrealized potential to be found in using advanced data structures and algorithms for analysis. Our ideas just aren't up to par with what the tech is capable of.
The backtesting system is also top notch. Nobody has as complete of a system for backtesting. I often see people complain about it, but I find that's often just not understanding the nuances of automated trading. It does exactly what you tell it to do, and people are often disappointed with the results of systematic trading. Sometimes you have to manage the orders yourself, and that's usually where people start to have difficulty.
I’m tired of learning proprietary languages. Even knowing other platforms support C# I’m tired of learning new APIs. My day job is software, I’ve done C# and Python for years. I know exactly how these work and I know I can code anything that I would need given the time.
Learning languages and APIs is hard work which is why I’m grateful for this community and the number of man hours that’s been poured into it. This community is a big factor and NT is where I’ve spent the most time.
NT could certainly be better. The release cycle is super slow compared to other industries. Targeting .NET 4.5 is painful with the growing open source community.
I have never used Multicharts, and I do not code algos for trading (only for research and use downloaded tick/minute data), so it's hard for me to tell you if NT has advantages. Having said that, NT is very easy to use and has a gigantic library of addons. Also, if you use them as a broker, the cost structure is very nice for the reliability and customer service that they deliver.