Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,792 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,314 given,
97,616
received
In this thread you may directly reach out to @Tradovate to get responsive answers to your questions. You'll be speaking with Rick Tomsic, the Founder and CEO of Tradovate Holdings, and Brian Weis, the President of Tradovate Technologies.
Rick Tomsic
Founder & CEO
Tradovate Holdings
Prior to founding Tradovate Holdings, Rick founded Open E Cry, LLC (OEC) in 2001 and has served in various executive roles at optionsXpress, Charles Schwab, and GAIN Capital.
Brian Weis
President
Tradovate Technologies
Brian managed the design and release of the original OECTrader, and went on to serve in several key leadership roles at Open E Cry: VP, Technical Services and VP of Business Development prior to leading Tradovate Technologies, LLC.
About Tradovate
Founded on decades of expertise, research, and brokerage leadership in the futures industry, Tradovate was born out of the recognition that futures traders were long overdue for a new and innovative futures trading experience. The mission: deliver a seamless futures trading experience on new technology with new pricing designed to reduce a trader’s total cost of ownership.
Please keep in mind that some customer service/technical support issues are best handled through proper channels at Tradovate, and not here in this thread. Never share your personal information like account numbers or passwords in this public thread.
Feel free to ask any questions below and we'll do our best to get them answered.
The futures io "AMA" (Ask Me Anything) series is by invitation only.
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,792 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,314 given,
97,616
received
We welcome @Tradovate as a new Site Sponsor. We are working to schedule their first webinar, where they will provide an overview of their product and services. Please follow this thread for updates.
We are focused on our core product, Tradovate, and do not have plans to support Sierra DTC.
Tradovate now has TPO Charts, and I would suggest you give them a try. If you do not see the features you are looking for, we are always developing; therefore, we would love to hear about them. Lastly, the TPO charts come standard in Tradovate with no additional cost.
We do support Custom Indicators. Our indicators are Javascript.
One benefit we provide is that all of our "Built in" indicators are provided in the platform as open-source and users are free to copy and modify the code to create their own indicators. You can create your own indicators by using the "Code Explorer" module in the trading platform. This is also where you can view our built-in indicators' code as well
Once you have created an indicator you can share it with the community by selecting "Share" function from the "Community" menu on the Code Explorer
Share
Selecting the "Explore" function from the "Community" menu on the Code Explorer will bring up a library of indicators that have been shared by other users with the community. Users can Search for indicators by typing in text in the searchbox, Install indicators by clicking the install button under the indicator description and Disable installed indicators from this area
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,792 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,314 given,
97,616
received
Thank you Brian. I followed along but it wasn't clear at the end whether or not it's possible for a Tradovate user to share the indicator with someone outside of your own community. For instance, can it be shared here on futures io?
To do that today, a user would be able to Export the indicator and send (or post) the file for other users to Import as a new indicator via the Code Explorer
I took a trial of Tradovate and was impressed with the TPO charts and how fully featured the web platform was. Hopefully the TPO charts will allow weekly/monthly profiles to be displayed soon...
The following 2 users say Thank You to salander for this post:
When you guys going to add "always on top" to the chart and dom?? Reason, a lot of us, at least I know several, just use the TV DOM, but charts from another system. When you click the other charts, the DOM disappears and is aggravating.
Just to say I have been using the TPO chart and have been really impressed with it as it seems quite simple in the settings panel, but has all the features I want such as changing the bar colours to what I choose, showing an IB, being able to split and merge profiles, automatic letter per tick scaling. I especially like the ability to automatically separate out the RTH session, and have it a different colour from the ETH hours.
It would be nice if the TPO count was an on/off option, but apart from that, great addition to the platform, thanks.
Trading, ideally structured, is a vehicle for expanding consciousness, not damaging it. - Brett Steenbarger
The following user says Thank You to matthew28 for this post:
Brian, I looked at Tradovate a little while ago and it looked reasonable for what I was after (I contemplated using it for a TopStep Combine, since it's a platform that is free in the Combine and the funded account.)
I decided not to use it, because, at least at the time, you did not have time bars less than 1 minute. I know many people would regard 1-minute bars as insanely short-term, but I am a short-term trader and prefer shorter periods. I generally use 30-second bars, and was looking for this with you. Since you didn't have it, I went on to use a platform that does, but that also has a cost with TST, which was less than optimal for either of us.
I understand that you have to make your decisions based on customer demand, and also on how big an effort a given change would require, but I hope you will consider adding this flexibility to your time-based bars -- the ability to select periods in seconds, not just minutes. I have no idea what it would involve on your end, but it would have swung the decision for me at the time.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
In the previous picture it's the pale rectangles. You can have a bar (yellow), as in this picture if you prefer. Or both. I am happy with the pale rectangle.
Trading, ideally structured, is a vehicle for expanding consciousness, not damaging it. - Brett Steenbarger
The following user says Thank You to matthew28 for this post:
Hi Bob. Obviously not Tradovate so only answering because I opened my platform to do a screenshot for Tr8er and thought I'd answer your question at the same time.
The new charts have seconds (currently in beta but available in the standard platform, or the desktop version at least). Clicking on that in the drop down menu brought up a box to enter the value required. You can go from one second up. I tried 30 as shown as you mentioned that timeframe.
Trading, ideally structured, is a vehicle for expanding consciousness, not damaging it. - Brett Steenbarger
The following 2 users say Thank You to matthew28 for this post:
Apologies for missing this question yesterday. Thank you @matthew28 for jumping in there!
Seconds-based charts were added in our September 13, 2019 release
We're constantly listening to customer requests (via our community request forum) and evaluating market trends and needs and updating/improving the platform. You can keep an eye on what we're adding in each release in our public release notes: https://www.tradovate.com/platform/tradovate-release-notes/
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,792 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,314 given,
97,616
received
Hi guys,
It is my pleasure to welcome Trevor Harnett (veteran trader and developer), sponsored by Tradovate, for our 410th webinar event, on Thursday, January 28th @ 4:30 PM Eastern US.
The title for the event is "Finding Trading Opportunities Using Profile Charts", and bullet points include:
Discover how futures traders use TPO Profile charts to identify trading opportunities. TPO charts allow the user to analyze the amount of trading activity, based on time for each level the market traded at, for any given period of time. This allows you to easily see the areas where the market is trading most of the time and helps you analyze price, volume, and time in a single chart.
- What Are TPO Charts
- How Are TPO Charts Used By Traders
- How to Open and read TPO Charts
- How to Configure TPO Charts & Common Customizable Settings
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,792 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,314 given,
97,616
received
We're seeing a strong response with registrations for Thursday's event with @Tradovate and Trevor Harnett.
Our live room webinar capacity is 500 people. We currently have well over that registered for the event, so we recommend you load the webinar 5-10 minutes early on Thursday if you can to secure your position. The event begins at 4:30 PM Eastern US.
Would love to see more customization of the formatting of the chart.
When using popped out charts the chart takes up a lot of unnecessary screen space. For example, the Y axis (price) takes up much too much space and cannot be customized with a smaller font and the width of the Y axis cannot be modified. Also, the top of the chart is complete wasted space. Obviously screen space is limited and the charts have a lot of wasted space.
Thank you.
The following user says Thank You to grayfrog for this post:
Trading: All Micros, especially the ones that move
Posts: 2,385 since Feb 2017
Thanks: 16,439 given,
9,002
received
Solid intro to market profile. Looking forward to the next one where they get a little more involved and introduce more advanced topics. I haven't used it, mostly VP here, but I can see advantages to having both on the screen. I'm too cheap at the moment to use Sierra Package 5 so I just run a M30 chart and let my brain fill in the rest
The following user says Thank You to Rrrracer for this post:
So glad this exists on Tradovate. I've been away from trading for a few months, how many days of TPO's can I see back? I seem to remember it would only show like 9 days of volume profile a while back (I could be wrong)
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,792 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,314 given,
97,616
received
Hi guys,
It is my pleasure to welcome Trevor Harnett, sponsored by Tradovate, for our 412th webinar event, on Thursday, February 25th @ 4:30 PM Eastern US.
The title for the event is "Identifying Setups & Targets Using Profile Charts", and bullet points include:
Build upon your futures knowledge by uncovering additional ways traders use TPO Profile charts to find and optimize trading opportunities. In this webinar we will review what TPO Profile charts are, go over some advanced settings, trading strategies and how to set up targets using TPO Profile Charts.
- Review of TPO Profile Charts and what they are
- Definition of market generated information
- How initial balance is used to set profit targets
- Value areas - Using day levels vs context from prior day
- 1 Time Framing and a sample trading strategy
- What Single Prints are and how to utilize them in trade setups
- Using VPOC Extend in trade setups
- Weak and Poor Hi/Low levels and what they look like
By default, the historical data on the TPO goes back 2 weeks. We're finalizing some options to allow access to more history and should have some updates on it shortly
As a short-term solution, you could (left click on a letter inside the profile) select "Merge Profile Left" or "Merge Profile Right" to combine multiple sessions or days:
I wanted to love Tradovate so bad. She turned me down though.
I've been waiting on SPAN margin for years. I want to do simple ES option hedging of an ES futures position... or complex option strategies.. or futures intra spreads... but no dice
I also would love it if they kept their awesome REST API open. Then endpoints are still visible in Swagger, but they don't support it. I looked for a year for a REST Futures API.. no one has one. Tradovate does but doesn't make it available. This would be a huge differentiator and would draw in more customers.. since every other futures broker makes it damned difficult to programmatically handle even the simplest of strategies. I'd be willing to pay for this.
any chance tradovate would consider adding SPAN and opening their REST api to the public?
Currently, we are only offering access to the API to B2B partners. There is quite a growing demand from retail traders for access as well. Because of that, we have an active internal effort to get organized around making access generally available in the next couple of months. So, API access for retail traders will be coming in the short term (Q2('ish) 2021 timeframe).
Pre-trade SPAN is something we've discussed quite a bit over the years (as you noted). Our team has built one previously and it is something we will schedule, but, at this point, I cannot provide any target dates for that one.
This would be awesome. It's my one major frustration because sometimes you can identify some important levels in the TPO chart that are only clearly visible more than 2 weeks back. And there may also be some naked POCs from more than 2 weeks back which would be good to be able to identify if more historical data on the TPO is available.
Tradovate does not have a minimum deposit requirement. If you are trading the ES Minis (not the Micro), the day trade margin is only $550. Therefore, you can trade one contract for $550. Keep in mind with the ES price at approximately 3900, the ES represents $195,000 of notional value. Therefore, we suggest you give yourself enough room for this type of leverage.
1st, thanks for being here and for answering our questions.
I am looking for another solution to connect my Jigsaw platform (broker + data). Yesterday I had an interesting chat with Akbar, one of your representative and I didn't mentioned the following, as I wanted to test the water first:
With my actual broker, 2 days ago in a middle of a trade, I received about 10 more fills at odd prices and then again 8 more filled contracts in all directions. I immediately exited and canceled everything. Result = + about $2,000, which was just impossible. Few hours later, everything seemed fine and I bought and sold few contracts. Then, no position was left open. At 5:50pm Est, during the Globex break, I checked my platforms and I saw that I was short for 2 contracts (this was not possible...).. At the Globex reopening, again I flattened everything, with a small gain.
I consider myself very lucky. My broker sent an email which is a beginning of apologies and explained that all positions have been corrected on our statements: Well, I am actually +$250 because of the emergency exits that I took (even when I was flat without knowing it). Again, lucky me.
Anyway, I know "others" offer a "built-in audit trail" inside their system. Now, because of my paranoia (guess why?) I record all my screens at once with Bandicam which BTW is a great little inexpensive software.
So my question is, what kind of solution do you offer when or if that kind of problem happens?
Thank you.
The following 2 users say Thank You to Fonz for this post:
Thanks for the question. Technology can always fail, but at Tradovate, we have many safeguards to help you always know your position.
Tradovate is not just a “front-end” like many other trading software connecting to an ISV (CQG, Rithmic, TT, etc.). Tradovate is a complete cloud-based middleware. One tool we provide is our “Activity Log.” It is a real-time module that shows every action. You can also sort the Activity Log by Orders, Positions, Cash Transactions, and User Actions. It is great too to be able to see what actions you took click by click.
Tradovate also has detailed reporting built into the software for on-demand reporting. With this tool, you can query orders, fills, cash movements, commissions, fees, and more. You can drill down to just the information you need.
Lastly, since Tradovate is cloud-based, we have a real-time record of all your orders, fills, etc. Therefore, if an FCM sends inaccurate information, you can always look to the Tradovate platform to compare. Since Tradovate also includes all fees on every trade, you are not left guessing at your actual account balance. It updates in real-time.
There are plenty more tools in Tradovate to manage orders and positions, but I hope this answers your question.
Trading: All Micros, especially the ones that move
Posts: 2,385 since Feb 2017
Thanks: 16,439 given,
9,002
received
Excellent presentation of the higher level market profile concepts by Trevor Harnett, Bastian Smit and @Tradovate.
Four years ago when I first started out knowing nothing, I recall all the FIO big hitters talking about context. It has taken a significant amount of time, effort, and money to finally get to a point where I finally feel I have a decent understanding and grasp of the subject. Understanding profile and what it means is something that would have been of great benefit had it been discovered earlier.
There is a lot to be said for being able to see the bigger picture. Always learning here... and this is my personal opinion, but if you struggle with consistency, direction or even just being able to see past the last five ticks as a discretionary trader, I would strongly recommend having a close look at these tools.
Once the concepts are understood, they provide a grounded framework for the market, expectations and results. Auctions and profile in it's various forms provide market generated information that can be used to improve your trading in nearly every conceivable way. My .02
Thanks for the great webinar guys.
The following 8 users say Thank You to Rrrracer for this post:
Thanks again for the feedback and additional questions. We had a chance to share these with Trevor (the presenter yesterday) and wanted to share his feedback below:
- Justin asks, "Do you generally take trades within [the Initial Balance Range] or wait until after?
It depends. If the market is gapping open outside the prior range I am likely to take trades while the initial balance is forming. If we open within the prior range I am more likely to let the initial balance develop before getting involved. For me it all relates to balance and imbalance.
- John asks, "When you see a buying/selling tail, at what point do you feel comfortable to trade against that area?"
Great question. I take into account a few things. First, is the level a support or resistance level that I was previously aware of. If so, I am likely to get involved sooner. If not, I tend to wait longer and let it develop. If I miss the trade, I miss the trade. I also watch the tempo of trade at that area. That is hard to describe, but it can provide key information to trade against.
- @tonybm asks, "[Are] you daytrading [for] scalping, intraday swing or longer term trades?"
A majority of my trades are day trade scalps. Less than 20 minute hold time. A few will be intraday swing trades. I don't hold overnight.
- @teamtc247 asks, "What are your thoughts on overnight inventory?
I note the overnight inventory on my trade journal prior to the open, but unless it is heavily skewed I don't utilize the information. A good example of when I give it more weight would be if we are gapping open higher and the overnight inventory is 100% long. That is a case where longs would be preferred, however, if price were to fall back within the prior range it can provide a great shorting opportunity because I know there are lot of stuck longs from overnight. Bottom line it is worthwhile information to make note of.
Another user asked about a PPT or PDF of the slides. We do have a copy, we're just working on what would be the best way to make these available for anyone who is interested
It's my one major frustration because sometimes you can identify some important levels in the TPO chart that are only clearly visible more than 2 weeks back. And there may also be some naked POCs from more than 2 weeks back which would be good to be able to identify if more historical data on the TPO is available.
