djkiwi 

Hi Lance, Thanks for posting that point as this issue is very important to me in broker selection. Have you had an experience when you were in a trade and either Ninjatrader or your feed went down but when you reviewed your positions on the Optimus system the stops were still intact? Also if you put a trade through Ninja can you then login to the optimus system and check that the trade has been actioned on their end as well in real time? Thanks in advance DJ

Hi DJ,
Although I'm not sure I would qualify as a technical whiz, I will answer this the best I can. One of the features I use in Ninja Trader, through Optimus, is their ATM (Automated Trade management ) system. When I place an order, it automatically enters me with a stop- loss order and a profit target simultaneously. Due to new regulations in the Futures market, there are certain order types that are now prohibited. For example , bracket orders.. also known as straddle orders are not allowed to be placed on the exchange. Let's say a news report was coming out and you wanted to place a buy order a few ticks above the price and a sell order a few ticks below. This way a strong move in either direction would trigger your order. Due to the regulations, you could not place such an order . But with Ninja, the orders are "virtual", meaning they are not placed with your broker on the exchange. Instead they are placed on your PC..and once the price hits your order, they get instantly triggered. This way, they comply with the regulations, but give you way more flexibility. Through the Rithmic data feed supplied by Optimus, you can place these types of orders along with many other types. Also, the OCO (one order cancels the other) is supported as well. This way, when your target is reached, your stop loss is also cancelled .
For experienced traders, these are great benefits. The only drawback is that if you disconnect from Ninja, or your PC goes down, you could have an open position with no stop loss or target . This is a risk I was not willing to take. I do not like having the potential of an open trade with no stop loss. Luckily, through Optimus, I had a solution. Matt suggested I install R-Trader on my laptop. R-Trader is another platform that runs on the same data feed. So when I enter a trade on Ninja, I see the same entry on R Trader as well. In the event that I disconnect from Ninja, I can easily exit my trade through R-Trader..on my laptop. I could also place a stop order too if I needed to.
So far, I haven't had an issue. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. I trade mainly CL (crude oil)..and it can move extremely fast. A technical issue without proper backup could be very costly. And if all else failed, I feel confident I could phone Optimus and they would help me in the fastest way possible.
I hope this answered some of your concerns.

djkiwi 

Hi Lance, Thanks for posting that point as this issue is very important to me in broker selection. Have you had an experience when you were in a trade and either Ninjatrader or your feed went down but when you reviewed your positions on the Optimus system the stops were still intact? Also if you put a trade through Ninja can you then login to the optimus system and check that the trade has been actioned on their end as well in real time? Thanks in advance DJ

1) To have OCO orders on a server, use R|TRader. They are not supported on Ninja.
You can use Ninja/RTrader interchangeably while seeing your orders on both.

2) Trades confirmed and executed show up exactly the same on the prelim. Did not have a issue so far.

I have read very good reviews for Optimus in this thread, but I would like to know the opinion from traders working outside the U.S. with Optimus.

The reason for my question is that there are other brokers well known, and very well valued, but that my experience in the past with them was very bad and even cost me money, without take any care about my claims and rights. So, I drew the conclusion was that if they did in this way it was because they know I am been living outside the U.S. and know how difficult it is a claim from abroad and they actually gave them the same.

If someone are abroad the US and work with Optimus I would appreciate some information about their experiences. Thanks.

bpr17 

I have read very good reviews for Optimus in this thread, but I would like to know the opinion from traders working outside the U.S. with Optimus. The reason for my question is that there are other brokers well known, and very well valued, but that my experience in the past with them was very bad and even cost me money, without take any care about my claims and rights. So, I drew the conclusion was that if they did in this way it was because they know I am been living outside the U.S. and know how difficult it is a claim from abroad and they actually gave them the same. If someone are abroad the US and work with Optimus I would appreciate some information about their experiences. Thanks.

We at Optimus would not treat anyone differently because they are outside the USA.
Optimus has clients in Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Brazil, Spain, Czech Republic, Australia, etc
I assume that you would believe a customer over me, but I also wanted you to hear it from us here.

mattz 

We at Optimus would not treat anyone differently because they are outside the USA. Optimus has clients in Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Brazil, Spain, Czech Republic, Australia, etc I assume that you would believe a customer over me, but I also wanted you to hear it from us here.

Thanks for your nice answer Mattz and I understand that this is the normal way, but... But I am speaking by my own experience with two of the most known brokers that appear a lot of time in this web and if what you said is normal for Optimus (I have no doubt about this) I can assure you is no normal for others... (I can give you information about them if you have interest).

So, for this reason, I am asking for the opinion of people that, maybe, have not the same experience and if no one appears that is a great opinion. Thanks indeed.

bpr17 

So, for this reason, I am asking for the opinion of people that, maybe, have not the same experience and if no one appears that is a great opinion. Thanks indeed.

You can read through this thread, and other broker review threads, and as you see a good or bad review just look to the left at the persons profile, and note what country they are in.

Mike

bpr17 

Thanks for your nice answer Mattz and I understand that this is the normal way, but... But I am speaking by my own experience with two of the most known brokers that appear a lot of time in this web and if what you said is normal for Optimus (I have no doubt about this) I can assure you is no normal for others... (I can give you information about them if you have interest). So, for this reason, I am asking for the opinion of people that, maybe, have not the same experience and if no one appears that is a great opinion. Thanks indeed.

Before customers come on board, our staff tends to listen carefully as to why customers switch, whether its technology, service or anything else that might cause a relationship termination. We do that because we want to set expectation right and be honest if there are needs we can not meet.
You can PM (private message) me or drop me an emaill matt (AT) Optimusfutures.com about the services you are seeking.
I don't want to make the Optimus thread a place to criticize other brokers or their services.

Thanks Mattz and Lance for the responses. Also Matt thanks for replying so quickly through your brokerage. That helps quite a bit but would be grateful for a little more clarification. Please let me explain my observations/experiences with this to date:

I've been sim trading ninjatrader for the last two years using a broker supplied zenfire datafeed. Real trades have been placed directly through interactive brokers not Ninjatrader although based on signals from ninjatrader. I want to start using my ninja ATM strategies to place trades. The reasons I've been reluctant to trade live through Ninjatrader is API/Windows 7/Broker interface issues.

For example, I've had numerous problems with the broker feed being disconnected overnight and not reconnecting. One night I left a 3 lot overnight short on oil and woke up with a naked position to find a loss of $9k as the market had spiked and my position was naked. This wasn't an isolated incident. It's interesting how these issues generally result in losses not gains.

Having said that I'm not blaming this entirely on ninjatrder. In fact I've removed a lot of custom code and indicators. Combined with Ninja API upgrades this issue has not reappeared for a couple of months. I'm quite sure a lot of the problems people experience with ninjatrader is due to poorly written custom indicators that bog down the ninja system.

So in respect of RTrader it's encouraging there are at least mechanisms in place to mitigate this OCO issue. Specifically though how does this work in practice?

If I put a trade through Ninja are you saying I have to put it manually through RTrader as well? Can RTrader use various rules to close a position placed through ninjatrader? For example if I have a ninja OCO order and the rithmic feed goes down or my PC loses connectivity can the RTrader mitigate the naked OCO position automatically? From what Lance wrote it appears you have to go into Rtrader and close the position manually. How would this work if you are in a swing trade and you have a major outage at 3AM?

Thanks in advance
DJ

djkiwi 

Thanks Mattz and Lance for the responses. Also Matt thanks for replying so quickly through your brokerage. That helps quite a bit but would be grateful for a little more clarification. Please let me explain my observations/experiences with this to date: I've been sim trading ninjatrader for the last two years using a broker supplied zenfire datafeed. Real trades have been placed directly through interactive brokers not Ninjatrader ..... For example, I've had numerous problems with the broker feed being disconnected overnight and not reconnecting. One night I left a 3 lot overnight short on oil and woke up with a naked position to find a loss of $9k as the market had spiked and my position was naked. This wasn't an isolated incident. It's interesting how these issues generally result in losses not gains. So in respect of RTrader it's encouraging there are at least mechanisms in place to mitigate this OCO issue. Specifically though how does this work in practice? If I put a trade through Ninja are you saying I have to put it manually through RTrader as well? Can RTrader use various rules to close a position placed through ninjatrader? For example if I have a ninja OCO order and the rithmic feed goes down or my PC loses connectivity can the RTrader mitigate the naked OCO position automatically? From what Lance wrote it appears you have to go into Rtrader and close the position manually. How would this work if you are in a swing trade and you have a major outage at 3AM? Thanks in advance DJ

I am asking you going forward to write to me directly on an email like you have done and I responded.
This thread is about Optimus futures feedback, and although I touch here on some technical issues that traders have the right to ask, if there are prolonged conversations, lets keep them private particularly if other brokers are mentioned.

Lets try this again: OCO orders using the Rithmic with R Trader will sit in the Rithmic infrasture.
There is no need to place both orders on Ninja and RTrader.
Both RTrader and NinjaTrader use the same feed so you will see the orders appear on both for the same account.

Lance was trying to tell you that if you NinjaTrader goes down for some reason, you could spark up RTrader and close the positions there. This is independent of OCO.

As a general rule, I always suggest to use the same feed (in my case Rithmic) for NinjaTrader your execution platform.

djkiwi 

Thanks Mattz and Lance for the responses. Also Matt thanks for replying so quickly through your brokerage. That helps quite a bit but would be grateful for a little more clarification. Please let me explain my observations/experiences with this to date: I've been sim trading ninjatrader for the last two years using a broker supplied zenfire datafeed. Real trades have been placed directly through interactive brokers not Ninjatrader although based on signals from ninjatrader. I want to start using my ninja ATM strategies to place trades. The reasons I've been reluctant to trade live through Ninjatrader is API/Windows 7/Broker interface issues. For example, I've had numerous problems with the broker feed being disconnected overnight and not reconnecting. One night I left a 3 lot overnight short on oil and woke up with a naked position to find a loss of $9k as the market had spiked and my position was naked. This wasn't an isolated incident. It's interesting how these issues generally result in losses not gains. Having said that I'm not blaming this entirely on ninjatrder. In fact I've removed a lot of custom code and indicators. Combined with Ninja API upgrades this issue has not reappeared for a couple of months. I'm quite sure a lot of the problems people experience with ninjatrader is due to poorly written custom indicators that bog down the ninja system. So in respect of RTrader it's encouraging there are at least mechanisms in place to mitigate this OCO issue. Specifically though how does this work in practice? If I put a trade through Ninja are you saying I have to put it manually through RTrader as well? Can RTrader use various rules to close a position placed through ninjatrader? For example if I have a ninja OCO order and the rithmic feed goes down or my PC loses connectivity can the RTrader mitigate the naked OCO position automatically? From what Lance wrote it appears you have to go into Rtrader and close the position manually. How would this work if you are in a swing trade and you have a major outage at 3AM? Thanks in advance DJ

One of the reason I do nor trust Ninjatrader. But so many broker offer them. Other platform being offered dont have charting and the ones that does cost hefty monthly subscription.