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Coming from TOS, a Little Confused About What to Choose


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Coming from TOS, a Little Confused About What to Choose

  #31 (permalink)
 john5 
Los Angeles, California, United States
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: ThinkOrSwim, Ninja Trader
Trading: Futures
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Tunetyme View Post
The ability to develop your own indicators, and an array of stock indicators that would cost thousands on NT, done deal.

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I appreciate your insight...but not sure I am clear on the part I quoted above. Would you please elaborate a little? I mean, you can develop your own indicators on Ninja and Ninja comes with a pretty good amount of standard indicators that can be used on stocks or futures.

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  #32 (permalink)
 Tunetyme 
Raleigh NC USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: Optimus
Trading: Emini, gold, currency
Posts: 34 since May 2018
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john5 View Post
I appreciate your insight...but not sure I am clear on the part I quoted above. Would you please elaborate a little? I mean, you can develop your own indicators on Ninja and Ninja comes with a pretty good amount of standard indicators that can be used on stocks or futures.

I tried NT and they did have many of the standard indicators. What troubled me was the vendors selling addons. I didn't look at all of the vendors but a good number of them. Few offered a money back guarantee. NT does nothing to review or support the user if they buy from one of those vendors. Even after several complaints about a particular vendor they didn't boot them off the site. I searched all over the net for reviews including here the best comment as I recall about buying NT 3rd party indicators was "it sure looks pretty". The other concern was stability I read numerous complaints about some issues and there was a lack of response from NT. I am not trying to trash NT but simply report what I found out after many hours of research and testing and share what I learned. Frankly, I believe I found a better option.


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  #33 (permalink)
 
bobwest's Avatar
 bobwest 
Western Florida
Site Moderator
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: ES, YM
Frequency: Several times daily
Duration: Minutes
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Tunetyme View Post
That was incredibly well said. I am coming from Fidelity so there was a sense of being overwhelmed with the a la carte menu. I spent months reading reviews, trialing software, checking options with each and more reviews. I tested NT since that seemed to be the popular choice. But as I dug into it, you end up needing to buy third party or develop a lot of indicators. Suddenly, the price tag goes through the roof and they aren't guaranteed by NT. It is strictly buyer beware and they are futures only so you can't trade pairs with an ETF or park cash in a stock. Once I demoed Sierra Chart I found real value. The ability to develop your own indicators, and an array of stock indicators that would cost thousands on NT, done deal. I found futures io to be essential to provide candid insights in various products and vendors. The other great find in three pages is Optimus who has spent a significant amount of time walking me through a complex process.

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I do appreciate it when someone says I have done well (), but I would like to say something about the indicator question.... In several years of using NT, I never once paid for an indicator. Going to outside vendors to supplement NT's functionality is usually (although not always) unnecessary and often a mistake.

It is true that NT has left out a ton of the functionality that you would basically expect in a trading/charting package, for reasons that I have never fully understood. However, a large group of coders, mainly working on FIO, but also on the NT support forum, have filled in the gaps very well. An Elite member can get, for free, excellent versions of just about anything from the FIO Download section, and there is a thread where you can request someone to write an indicator or modify an existing one for free.

Generally, you don't need to use commercial vendors to extend NT. There are a few, who are also long-time FIO members, and who are well-known to the community, who provide good work if you need what they are selling. Most FIO NT users don't ever have to spend anything on add-ons, if they use what is available on this site.

Now, with that said, just about everything you need does come built-in to Sierra Chart, and it's a great platform.

NT's basic rationale seems to have been that they would provide an easily-extended platform, which they did, and then others could fill in the missing functionality. I wish they hadn't done that, but that's not my call. Fortunately, most of that functionality was filled in by trader-coders who were not vendors, so it did work out in a way. It would have been better for their users if NT had taken another path, but you can generally get what you want, without spending much, if anything.

Yes, I do use Sierra now. There are lots of reasons. But NT is still a pretty good platform.

Bob.

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  #34 (permalink)
 john5 
Los Angeles, California, United States
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: ThinkOrSwim, Ninja Trader
Trading: Futures
Posts: 116 since Aug 2013
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Tunetyme View Post
Frankly, I believe I found a better option.


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Just out of curiosity, have you looked at the Multicharts?

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  #35 (permalink)
 Tunetyme 
Raleigh NC USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: Optimus
Trading: Emini, gold, currency
Posts: 34 since May 2018
Thanks Given: 95
Thanks Received: 27


john5 View Post
Just out of curiosity, have you looked at the Multicharts?

Only on the surface. I did see a number of good reviews and it was next on my list alone with Jigsaw. I just feel more comfortable in Sierra Chart because I have used spreadsheets (including paper) since the early 80's. My criteria by priority was:

1 Platform Stability
2 Ability to choose brokers and data feeds (I was locked into Fidelity's platform and limitations)
3 Ability to prototype and back test trading ideas
4 Platform flexibility and a wide array of indicators supported by the vendor.
5 Support
6 Price

Initially I thought I would use IB as a broker but they don't allow 401k's to trade futures nor does TD Ameritrade and I never considered Trade Station. These don't have the flexibility that I want.

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  #36 (permalink)
 
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 Skidboot 
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 202 since Dec 2010
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TD Ameritrade do allow to trade futures in retirement accounts and I trade them regularly. They don't allow to trade options on futures in those accounts.


Tunetyme View Post
but they don't allow 401k's to trade futures nor does TD Ameritrade and I never considered Trade Station. These don't have the flexibility that I want.


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  #37 (permalink)
 Tunetyme 
Raleigh NC USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: Optimus
Trading: Emini, gold, currency
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Skidboot View Post
TD Ameritrade do allow to trade futures in retirement accounts and I trade them regularly. They don't allow to trade options on futures in those accounts.

IRA's?

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  #38 (permalink)
 john5 
Los Angeles, California, United States
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: ThinkOrSwim, Ninja Trader
Trading: Futures
Posts: 116 since Aug 2013
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Tunetyme View Post
IRA's?


https://tickertape.tdameritrade.com/trading/trade-futures-in-ira-15483

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  #39 (permalink)
 Tunetyme 
Raleigh NC USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: Optimus
Trading: Emini, gold, currency
Posts: 34 since May 2018
Thanks Given: 95
Thanks Received: 27



Sorry, I meant IRA's are ok but not 401k's. What I thought he was referencing was trading an IRA. I spoke with someone in their compliance department and they said no to 401k's. That was about 7 or 8 months ago.

There are tremendous tax benefits to using a 401k over IRA's.

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  #40 (permalink)
 
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 Skidboot 
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 202 since Dec 2010
Thanks Given: 203
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TDA allows futures in IRAs, SEP IRAs, Solo 401Ks. Employer sponsored 401Ks are plans setup by the employers. I believe they set the rules on what investment products are eligible to be traded in those accounts - mostly mutual funds, stocks and ETFs.


Tunetyme View Post
IRA's?


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