Futures + data/chart software

[bgtrader]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share that I've been researching US Futures brokers now for about 1 year. I came up with the following 3 that are the best in my opinion and the opinions of many of my trading friends:

-Mirus Futures & Amp Futures --excellent service, competitive commissions (4.40ish), and best brokers for Ninjatrader+Zen Fire combination, backed by Dorman Trading and RCG-both out of Chicago

-Infinity Futures--excellent service, competetive commissions (4.40), promotes the use of the Transact AT trading platform which is very streamlined, stable and runs the Transact super fast unfiltered data feed-the only well known retail competitor super fast data/execution feed/service next to Zen-Fire, backed by Transact Futures out of Chicago---EXCELLENT firm

____

--The above brokers & their software packages are great. One of the limitations you run into with these GREAT brokers out of Chicago is they don't give you historical data. You get anywhere from 7 to 20 days of data. If you'd like historical data + charting that can power that, IQ Feed is my current favorite for futures trading & Investor RT is my favorite software to power IQ Feed (by Linnsoft). However, both access to premium historical data like IQ Feed and software like Investor RT-both require monthly payments totaling to around 225-250 USD. While I require those tools for my trading, if I were to recommend a solution for free historical+realtime data and charting software for free also, I'd recommend opening an account with Thinkorswim with their account minimum and then withdrawing most of your capitol, leaving around 100USD to keep the account + software access active. Thinkorswim's platform has lots of bells and whistles that you all might like and best of all, no fees, no monthly payments...only normal commissions if you trade, but no penalty or fees for not trading. :shand:

[david22]

Re: Futures + data/chart software

 

i use thinkorswim for my charting and sometimes ninja with zenfire

and the transact datafeed with marketdelta.

[indo37]

Re: Futures + data/chart software

 

It`s strage, nobody on this board is using InteractiveBrokers???

But you know èm??

From ONE account (plus the free papertrading ((not -demo)) account) you can use their api for most decent charting software or odering frontends to trade FUTURES from most international exchanges, Stocks (even India, if you are indian), OPTIONS and finally FOREX as they are a true ECN.

 

Regards

 

Indo37

[cashinvestor]

Re: Futures + data/chart software

 

I concur. After much research and using different platforms, the way of the future is NinjaTrader and Zen-Fire data feed. Whether you get this feed from Mirus or AMP doesn't really matter. It's the speed of the data and the robustness of the platform. Plus you can't beat the ATM Automatic Trade Management routines built into NT.

 

If you want to trade on other exchanges besides the usual CME or ICE, then IB is probably the next best choice. At least NT gives you the option.

 

TradeStation is a good development platform, as EasyLanguage is pretty simple. But their brokerage sucks big time. Their margins are too high, their data is mediocre and their execution environment with the Trade Manager is archaic.

 

Even though MetaTrader is prevalent across all the different retail forex brokers, I'm moving to NinjaTrader for as much as I can. C# coding is the way of the future, especially in the .Net world of windows.

[kishisaki]

Re: Futures + data/chart software

 

Yeah NinjaTrader is pretty solid, i use it with ZenFire+Mirrus Financial, the low commission is what got me on it.

I have Interactive Broker but my experience with it have been bad, historical data is very limited.

I also use Esignal data feed and charting most of the time, because in my opinion esignal is the best when it comes to data feed and works with any other 3rd party charting programs like Dynamic Trader.

[afuturestrader]

I agree that esignal is a very good datafeed. I have not tried the mentioned IQfeed. For software I think Ensign is solid. However, I may have to try Investor RT on my Mac.

[atleast]

hello guys If you trade US futures i can suggest that you try

gofutures.com

u get the best trade platform incorporating charting etc. It is used by pros. It is also the cheapest.

[APopovA]

hello guys If you trade US futures i can suggest that you try u get the best trade platform incorporating charting etc. It is used by pros. It is also the cheapest.

 

Right, but you are wrong only about 2 little things -- it is not the cheapest, far from it; and trade platform sucks big time, i don't even see a DOM...

[statip]

Interactive brokers is probably the cheapest around.... They may not have tools to develop strategies / etc. However, there are MANY third part tools that tie in. TradeStation is a decent compromise. Plus, if you have any kind of volume at all, it is basically free.

[joe_sixpack]

IB is a very good broker. I have been using them for about 3 years. Their commissions are very competitive, especially for YM, which is what I trade. But their margins are not very competitive. You can get the best margins from some small brokers.

[joe_sixpack]

The best combo I have found for trading with IB is Amibroker and Bracket Trader, but now I am using Sierra Chart and Bracket Trader because of my trading methodology. SC is pretty good too. I prefer it to NinjaTrader big time.

[sm_jew]

I have thought of switching to Sierra Chart, but I am still using Ninja. I like it, it's free for charting and analysis, and for trading I use some other platform supplied by my broker with no fee. I agree that IB is a very good broker if you have money to spare, but for those of tighter budgets, I would not recommend them.