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Hi everyone .. I am considering a change from X_Trader to either Ninjatrader or Sierra Charts .. was looking for some input from people who have used both .. I trade the ES and some CL .. but mostly the ES
Thanks for your Time
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I use NinjaTrader because I had already bought the lifetime license and thus I am done with software costs. Also, because with NinjaTrader comes the possibility to connect to Kinetick real-time data feed too: the cheapest professional quality and unfiltered data feed available to retail investors.
But if you are OK with a monthly lease for SierraCharts plus another more expensive live data feed subscription (if you don't get a deal from your broker), then I would recommend SierraCharts as it is a more complete package all together, especially to anyone performing and trading on the basis of volume analysis: market & volume profiles, volume ladders, etc...
These features come built in with Sierracharts, while you have to purchase 3rd party plugins for NinaTrader.
I also have the feeling that a programmer would generally prefer the NinjaTrader platform for its universal C# programming language. But that's not necessarily the case for all.
Either way, both are top notch and whichever you end up with will be a perfect choice.
All depends on your requirements as a trader and the main tools you would use; as the instruments themselves are not really the binding parameters (as long as you remain in equities, forex or futures of course).
Successful people will do what unsuccessful people won't or can't do!
Ninja has a vibrant community of users enriching the platform, primarily based in this forum. Sierra is constantly being developed with updates being pushed every few days.
I find Sierra to offer a well rounded suite of features, that work efficiently and without issue. You can achieve the same features and then some with user programmed indicators in Ninja, but there will be a good amount of tweaking and troubleshooting in your future, and arguably a performance loss.
In this thread I outlined why I switched from NT to SC. In the 9+ months since then, SC has made continued improvements, making an even stronger case. SC has as many new releases in 2 months (with more significant changes) as NT has in 2 years, literally, and they still manage to keep it faster and more stable.
SC has 10 levels of depth, a volume profile in the DOM, and order quantity buttons, which will be familiar to you coming from XTrader, none of which NT has. Also, NT has a minimum update time of 100ms, whereas Sierra's is more than 2X lower at 40ms, so if you use anything that is sensitive to quick updates (like prints in the DOM), then Sierra will be much faster because it indeed does update more often (besides the fact that it runs very lean, usually about 4x less memory usage per an equivalent charting setup than NT).
I used Ninja for several years but recently switched to Sierra. The two major things that initially drove my decision to do the trial version of SC while still on NT;
1) NT was eating up a lot of system resources. I don't trade on the latest model computer, only running 4MB memory, and just to run NT in a high volume time could take 300k. When my system bottlenecked, for whatever reason, I noticed some serious data lag. I had been told that SC ran leaner.
2) I had wanted to get into the study of market profile. NT has options available, but from 3rd party vendors. I did download a trial of Finalgo's version and had no complaints, but with SC it comes built in. So after the Finalgo trial was over I did the free tiral of Sierra.
Initially, I found Ninja to be much easier to figure out, but I found to be less customizable. Sierra offers customization of nearly everything, but I felt was more difficult right "out of the box".
Once my SC trial ran out I decided to purchase a month, and by the time that was over I had been won over to Sierra Charts. Where NT would take 250-300k, SC uses 100-125k. I now have everything set up to my liking, and have even customized some things I never even thought of before. I have no data lag anymore.
I still have time left on my NT service, my license was expiring right as I was doing the free trial of Sierra, so I extended for 3 more months. But, not only have I not opened it once since I made the decision to purchase SC, but I have uninstalled it on both of my computers. I did not dislike NT, and the list of indicators seems to go on forever due to the many contributions from other traders, but Sierra has everything I am looking for... Except a hat. I have a Ninja Trader hat that I got at a trader event in Las Vegas and now wish I had one that said Sierra Charts. But, I am well-versed in Photoshop and if it bothers me enough can have one made I guess.
I am nearly sure NT offers a free trial as well. Do one platform each week, if you need another week they will probably give it if you ask nicely. Platforms are kind of like cars, you have to test drive them and see how it fits you. Good luck.
FYI - Sierra Charts costs me less than Ninja Trader did. I never purchased the lifetime license, so that is a part of it. But Mirus is my broker, and both NT and SC will use Zen-Fire at no additional cost, so paying for more expensive data is an option but not a requirement.
Sure that's why I had put between parentheses: "if you don't get a deal from your broker"
NinjaTrader is $50 per month on a leasing plan if you buy annually, plus a Kinetick basic subscription in order to trade ES and CL is $50 per month for a total of $100 per month (assuming CME exchange waiver program)
SierraChart lease (the package that is worth using anyway) is $45 per month, plus a DTN IQFeed for example in order to trade ES and CL is minimum $88 per month for a total of $133 per month (assuming CME exchange waiver program)
Either way, I don't like infinite recurring running costs - paying a monthly fee forever... yuk!
I personally prefer to pay once, amortise that cost over a given period of time, and then get done with it.
The lifetime license for Ninjatrader is $995 or the equivalent of 20 months of lease. In less than two years you are good!
If you get a deal from your broker for data, that's perfect, and SierraChart will be cheaper for the first 20 months only... With a lifetime license you would be going 100% free of charges after 20 months of use - both platform and data (since it is coming from your broker for free).
If Sierra is to offer a possibility to buy a lifetime license at a future stage, and they are still leading by then, trust me I would switch in a heartbeat.
But for now, this is a deal breaker for me, surely a smart way for them to assure a steady income, but not for me.
Cheers bro
Fadi
Successful people will do what unsuccessful people won't or can't do!
Keep in mind that SC is only $35.10 per month if you pay for 12 months at a time. Doesn't really change your conclusion, but I don't know why someone would pay $45 unless they were still trying it out.