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- Up until July 15th, new customers can purchase NinjaTrader for Rithmic for use at any broker/FCM that now, and in the future, supports Rithmic
- After July 15th, Rithmic will still be available to purchase but can only be used at NinjaTrader Brokerage
@NinjaTrader I just don't understand the decision to cut Optimus and other brokers out from signing up new customers July 15th. I can't speak for others but Optimus did a fantastic job supporting NT customers. I don't see how these brokers who have been cut out can continue to offer same level of support over time for legacy NT customers without being able to signup new customers. At some point it won't be worth the investment or even viable imo for these brokers to continue to support NT. I know the NT company line right now is we are not taking anything away and you can continue to use your broker. But long term it looks to me like this will become less and less of an option as brokers you have cut out stop supporting NT. So this does narrow options down for NT customers.
I honestly think you should rethink your approach and allow good brokers to signup new clients after July 15th and beyond. This is better for license holders of NT.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
I know that some people hold the opinion that Introducing Brokers provide little value other than being a middle-man for a clearing firm and for pumping up whatever software vendor happens to come their way next. The sad truth is that for many Introducing Brokers this is the case.
The reason I’m posting this is because my experience with my Optimus was the opposite! They have far exceeded my expectations with every interaction. Yes, my commissions may be a $0.50 more, but the guidance, insight, and support they have provided along the way has been worth the premium!
Your mileage of course may vary, and everybody has a different need in a broker, but for me it was someone that was familiar with the industry, the software choices, the back-end routing and data choices, and an ‘oh $#@&’ number in case I panicked and needed assistance.
I’m very disappointed with the fact that NinjaTrader will not be an option for Optimus customers in the future. They have been partners with both NinjaTrader & Rithmic for years. I’m impressed with all of the resources (videos, posts, etc) they’ve put up help new NinjaTrader users like me find their way. My broker has also personally provided me several 1 on 1 sessions when I had questions about NinjaTrader.
The other thing Optimus has done for me has been a voice of knowledge and independence. Since they offered many different platforms & brokerage routing technologies, they knew the features, strengths & deficiencies, as well as how different platforms achieved the same end goal with different approaches and worked with me to see which was the better fit for myself.
I commend Ray Deux for stepping up to the plate to clean up the industry. I just wonder what is left for those Introducing Brokers like Optimus who have provided value for NinjaTrader users and could provide value for future NinjaTrader users?
You make a good point. For Rithmic, at least you still have Sierra Chart in the same price range, which I consider to be much better than NT in terms of the software development cycle and quality. Alternatively, it will be interesting to see if TT FIX with other clearing firms is still supported after July 15th. TT's FIX API is a good product on a level similar to Rithmic's R API.
With regards to Mirus, I've long-forecasted the implosion of ZenFire and less so, BigTick. With the arrogance of being correct once, I will say that a bailout is temporary relief. The firm or what's left of it needs to actually improve instead of using NT as a band-aid. The merger of two crappy companies doesn't make a better one (this statement is being unfair to NT, as I think they're a decent company although I've certainly used better). The other speculation we could make is that perhaps why they are shutting out specifically Rithmic (rather than CQG and TT) from other clearing firms is because of residual conflicts/grudges that (what's left of) Mirus holds against Rithmic for the implosion of ZenFire? I don't know. I'm guessing with the closely-guarded secret on this that they could have agreed to a confidential resolution somewhere. Maybe they are simply reviving the Zen-Fire wrapper of Rithmic behind the scenes, which explains the incompatibility with other clearing firms - this move seems like a reversal of what Rithmic did to Mirus by letting ZenFire go down.
@artemiso if things continue down this path I plan to explore my options. One problem is have much invested in coding NT strats so will be a very slow process for me to convert to something else. But something I am considering.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
SC is probably cheapest alternative in your scenario. You'd have to go a step up in price for the next best set of choices - I'd recommend Deltix if you're used to C# .NET. Ilya and his guys are extremely passionate about software. Yeah, unfortunately you have to show no loyalty to your code if the cost-benefit is correct.