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I have been through a bunch of threads on here and have not found any conclusive answers for my query so I am hoping some folks can provide some guidance here.
Primary Market - Spot FX (will likely include futures later)
I am in search of a broker for US citizen who is registered and segregates funds for protection. Ideally the broker would be an ECN/STP broker not a Market Maker. At this stage in the game transaction costs are an important consideration as I am moving to larger volumes.
I have narrowed down to MBT and IB. Both seem to be reputable brokers exercising fare trading practices. But IB so far is on the winning side because their spreads appear to avg lower more frequently than MBT.
My biggest problem I believe at this point is charting a data feed. I am open to using Multicharts, NT, Sierra or another 3rd party. For my trading style I require tick data in order to create range bar charts. IB does not offer this as an option with their feed. Ideally I would want to have my data feed come from the broker whom I am placing my trades through. But because of the inherent problems of them not providing the data required I am left trying to find a provider with data whose spreads most closely align to that of my chosen broker.
I am open to the idea of investigating other brokers but the convenience of being able to trade multiple securities plus the low transaction costs through IB is very attractive.
I look forward to hearing from you other experienced folks in helping me narrow my search for the best possible combination.
Thanks in advance,
Jester
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I imagine you'll get personalized responses from members, but you might also want to look at the 'nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) Best of Trading' results to get you started:
Thanks Mike that is definitely a handy quick reference list.
Looks like there are some high ratings for an IB, NT, ZenFire combo but would love to hear from others who are using this setup or some other combo that has been effective.
Ok So I have to say I find it a bit discomforting that nobody has had any additional input on this query of mine, other than BM pointing me to the Best of page.
In a continued effort to determine if there is in fact an ideal combination for IB and a platform with data feed that includes real-time tick by tick data I came across the following thread on NT forums.
So now my next question would be is anyone currently using or has used in the past the combination of IB as your broker for spot Forex, Ninja Trader with Kinetic premium Forex data feed for intraday trading/scalping?
In general all of this has been covered many, many times. That may be why no one is wanting to cover it again right now. You will find all the info you need in the threads on the forum.
I use MB Trading with NinjaTrader. I would describe the combination as a disaster.
NinjaTrader does not work well with the MB API. Not all Ninja functions are available. There is a problem with MB transmitting position information before order execution info. The result is Ninja strategies get out of sync with the the real account. The work around is to use an "unmanaged approach" when programing strategies. The method is somewhat complex and would challenge a beginner. NT bracket orders will not work (stopLoss + profitLimit) which is very inconvenient.
MB has separate futures and equities clearing houses. This requires separate accounts and transferring funds between them is by check only. The futures account is blind during the trading day. You have to wait until end of the day to check your account funds.
I experienced 2 times when MB was shutdown for the trading session due to computer problems. They reset their computers for half hour at midnight and my account is unavailable at 04:00 each day requiring NT to be rebooted to reconnect. You will need an automated keystroke program to do this unless you want to get up in the middle of the night to do it manually. There is a conceptual fault with NT that is exposed when rebooting as NT strategies cannot read real account info. So your strategy may get out of sync with automated rebooting.
I don't trade Forex, but would not expect it to be any better.
On the plus side, MB offers low commissions, low minimum account size, and free minute historical data (30 - 90 days, varies with instrument). They do equities, futures and forex which is handy. There is no monthly inactivity fee, but there is a monthly data fee (I think 2 dollars) if the account is inactive.
I stick with them because I know the pitfalls, but I dream of something better.
