Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
in comparison to nt:
stability, ease of use and configurability.
qst stands for quick screen trader and the name says it all. in nt everything takes much longer and the configurability is very limited. i call it tedious
in comparison to sierra:
sierra is slim and stable, no difference. in general sierra is a good solution.
also sierra is a little bit restrictive. you have to use what they offer, qst is java based, modular, you can configure everything almost without limits. qst is faster to use and it offers more choices at the same time
for me the biggest difference is: i can use a modern and FREE operating system which even works on my small laptop
After 3 years I'm profitable in spite of NT, not because of it.
As we speak watching yet again as it screws up another simple ATM strategy. Since I've been trading it has become obvious I can't trust NT to execute a strategy over any length of time. Part of the reason I'm profitable is I've learned not to trust it. Makes me wonder how the other half lives.
Not sure what it is this time but according to NT charts the first profit target is still in place even if price transected it some time ago and both IB and NT accounting (NT accounting more or less) show it was met.
After a couple of years of putting up with this I'm beginning think whatever causes NT to shoot itself in the head may have to do with intermittent communication--more often than not NT is off on some tangent after a communications glitch. It works well enough until that point--better than a pointed stick in the eye at any rate.
Excuse me while, yet again, I edge out of a trade, reboot NT and re-enter before the trend dissipates entirely.
Not a happy camper.
In the figure below, Monday morning trading fallout from the EU elections over the weekend, which ought to be like sitting in a rocking chair, we're battling NT for clarity. The 3 profit targets have been in place since the order for 0.15M units was accepted, long before price arrived at the first target. Note the quantity in the order box (0.1M) suggests the target has been hit.
Edited to add: after restarting both NT and IB (NT required reloading the workspace as well) it looks like IB's interface (TWS) also had its knickers in a knot, so the fault is not entirely NT's. That said, while it does the best with what its programmers gave it a little more of a head's up when the entire system goes into the crapper would be nice. Not a clue in the log file and I need to spend time now evaluating the trade--not sifting through NT trace files. Until then we live with the fact error handling is not NT's strong suit.
Picking up the pieces of our shattered trade after the fact we see NT scores on the rebound, adding to the confusion. At least it's reporting 1 + 1 = 2 for now.
Bottom line is a poor workman blames his tools, and desperately in need of sleep at this point I must acknowledge the fact I should have restarted the system as soon as NT charts went bizzaro--my bad. Still have faith EU election results will drive the EURO into my waiting arms, so all is not lost.
- Orders submitted by NT through IB go straight through to IB --> My point here is NinjaTrader has absolutely nothing to do with whethere an order is filled or or not, this is a function of the market
- Charts are driven by data received from IB
- My point is that NinjaTrader displays what is received from the IB API --> Most if not all of our FX charts are driven by the BID price so what happens frequently is that you will have a limit order to buy, the chart (bid price) trades through the limit price where you think it should fill but since the ask price has not travelled through --> You are still in fact not filled.
I should add, this is not an explanation for your experience but a generalization that people need to understand when trading FX. We would be happy to look into your experience should you send an inquiry through to our support team.
Assuming this is addressed to me, it's taken me 3 years to come to that conclusion--not a snap decision exactly--partly because it took me that long to learn what was it and what was me, and partly because I'm hesitant to sink another wad of time & cash into another retail system that may be no better, when I can make money with this one. When it works, it's adequate. Just now for example it made me 30 pips while I grabbed a nap.
Roger that--I figured out what likely happened before I lay down for a nap a few hours ago.--apparently another communications glitch. Not top of my game after trading all night. I have to admit it's not necessarily NT's fault it apparently didn't receive notice when IB filled the order (at 04:30:16 AST, according to IB's trade log), but instead posted it at 06:10 AM when NT was restarted. I have no doubt it's doing what it's programmed to do, whether or not it's programmed to warn the trader of developing & potentially dangerous situations.
The quibble I have in this instance is that whereas as might be expected NT showed a balance of 0.1M units in the order box on the chart (a drop of 0.05M) after IB filled the 1st profit target order, indicating perhaps on some level it was aware the order had been filled, it nevertheless was prepared to wait indefinitely for another trigger which would never come to finish updating the chart, reminiscent of the way e.g. it sometimes--but not always--freezes when refreshing indicators (which, while causing me to wonder whether NT has any fail safe mechanisms at all, I'm prepared to blame on the indicators)
At the time all I could tell is it didn't look like the game IB and NT play with GTC orders that span end of day (where later in the evening the position of a filled entry jumps some random amount up or down), also no trace of which absurdity is apparently flagged in either IB or NT logs.
These days trading is by choice my only source of income and necessarily have other means of doing it. NT is fine for research and I have enough experience in general to anticipate & work around what I perceive to be its idiosyncrasies. It's just that once in a while after a long night things can still devolve to the hair-tearing stage.
@bnichols, you might try replacing IB. I had nothing but constant headaches with NT and TWS years ago, I had far fewer problems once I replaced IB with Rithmic/Zen or TT.
