George 

Luke, Thanks for adding. But please make me understand this correctly. I lack knowledge about how the API and FIX protocol works. So please, in your opinion, which one is the Best XTrader or Zen-Fire? Thank you in advance!

I have no knowledge about programming on FIX or API, but I know that FIX adds a layer to API, so one more step for data, btw I re-read your post and is strange that u experieced so hig lag with NT/TT, maybe is cos TT live is different from Sim, look here: (sim on the left)

Anyway lately seems that Zen-Fire has some problem not in term of speed but to keep all the ticks, especially in fastest market, this may also to maintain the speed.
X-Tradex is better but the platform is not so user friendly like NT, or better is a bit complex, and the cost is very high.

Luke.

Cost is free through Velocity actually, I mean you can select X-Trader and pay pretty similar commission as what you would expect elsewhere (ie: Mirus), and get X-Trader free.

If you do more than 500-600 round turns a month, you can save money by buying an X-Trader subscription.

Mike

Ja Mike,

but if u trade more than 500 contracts month u can find a really better rate with X-Trader subscription on Global Futures

Global Futures great discount for X-Trader Global Futures, clearing thru RCG, provide the lowest commission I ever see for trading with X-Trader, that costs from $650 month for one exchange, and the commission all comprensive for ES are $2.32 round turn and for 6E $ 3.22 r/t, and now they give …

Luke.

Hmm. One look at their website compared with Velocity is all it takes for me to pass on that one.

Mike

LukeGeniol 

... Anyway lately seems that Zen-Fire has some problem not in term of speed but to keep all the ticks, especially in fastest market, this may also to maintain the speed... Luke.

I think you will find the price servers on Zen/Rithmic use UDP while TT (and CQG) use TCP/IP. Order servers use TCP/IP. By its nature TCP/IP would impose a delay based on your distance from the price server and your bandwidth... but have more complete data.

MXASJ 

I think you will find the price servers on Zen/Rithmic use UDP while TT (and CQG) use TCP/IP. Order servers use TCP/IP. By its nature TCP/IP would impose a delay based on your distance from the price server and your bandwidth... but have more complete data.

Thanks MXASJ this is useful information, so orders thru TCP/IP(TT) will lag more than UDP (ZEN), there's a way to measure this time?

Thanks.

Luke.

There are two seperate servers on almost all trading platforms AFAIK, price and order. The prices you see on TT/CQG are arriving over a TCP/IP connection, meaning an ack is required from your computer. On Zen/Rithmic, it is UDP so no ack is required and packets may be dropped... but it will be "faster". There are some creative people using UDP with a type of FEC to make it more robust, but that is higher end stuff.

Order servers are all TCP/IP, including Zen/Rithmic.

I'm talking slightly beyond my depth here so if anyone thinks I've got it wrong please let me know.

George 

One more thing to be said about the Xtrader. You can only be connected to one exchange at a time.

I checked on this one to see how it might effect me, and since NYMEX is under CME server, I could have both the ES and CL dom's up same time in X-Trader. I trade CL 90% of the time and haven't traded anything but CL or ES in over a year, so it works fine for me.

I'm considering switching to Velocity because I would like to use X-Trader instead of NT DOM. I already use MultiCharts for charts and backtesting, and MultiCharts has the TT FIX adapter, and Dale confirmed I could do both MC+TT FIX and X-Trader simultaneously.

I contacted Dale Box @ Velocity Futures (dbox /at/ velocityfutures.com) and he has been very helpful. Thanks to George for the referral of his rep. Dale has given me a very competitive quote on commissions, matched my margins, and I like the idea that Velocity is an FCM whereas Mirus is an IB. But I also really like the customer portal at Velocity, this is a sore spot for me with my Mirus statements.

So I've not decided yet and not a decision to take lightly, but so far so good and I may be switching from Mirus to Velocity. Also I know most users here are NT users, and if you use NinjaTrader then really you should have Zen Fire, it is simply the best for NinjaTrader users. Kinetick might change that over time But for me, I don't use NT for any charting, backtesting or anything other than the DOM, and because of this I think X-Trader makes more sense for me. We will see

Mike

Recently pulled some money out of my account at Velocity by wire transfer. Request was processed next biz day as promised, funds received. All my interactions with them have been positive.


Free version of X Trader has been a very reliable execution platform.

Not sure if this has been covered here or elsewhere, but there is an easy way to get ZF connection to trade a TT account on the same computer.

Open two accounts, one with NT/ZF and another with NT/TT. Connect to ZF first and then to TT. The ZF feed is now powering the TT acount. Open DOM and click on TT account.

Enjoy.