bathrobe 

futuresbroker.com is free and less ($4.26) I think they are a subsidiary of Velocity though.

I just went to the futuresbroker.com site and I did the live chat and I ended up chatting with my Velocity rep! So I told her I was looking for another broker with Bund on sim. She wasn't amused.

so after much searching.. I am now doing X-trader as well... just started this week... the learning curve is not that hard... I was able to trade today without any issues and met my goal in a few minutes.. then just moved on to TTSIM to play and try new things...

I have much to learn about the platform still, but it is faster than NT7!! ... I still like tradevec, but I like the EPIQ with XT... I wish others had thought of it and added it since that is rather useful and it is tracked at the workstation level, so it is estimated at best, but better than wondering where the hell your order is on the queue... oh wait, TT will patent that too and charge 0.15c per transaction (if they have not yet done it that is )

GentleTrader 

Which broker is that? The "problem" of TT is that your platform depends on TT server at your IB. Better clients get better servers/net speed.

that is very much true... it is my understanding that Advantage Futures has the most robuts TT setup out there available to retail... but their account management features suck... even worst than dorman trading...

sysot1t 

so after much searching.. I am now doing X-trader as well... just started this week... the learning curve is not that hard... I was able to trade today without any issues and met my goal in a few minutes.. then just moved on to TTSIM to play and try new things... I have much to learn about the platform still, but it is faster than NT7!! ... I still like tradevec, but I like the EPIQ with XT... I wish others had thought of it and added it since that is rather useful and it is tracked at the workstation level, so it is estimated at best, but better than wondering where the hell your order is on the queue... oh wait, TT will patent that too and charge 0.15c per transaction (if they have not yet done it that is )

I find the ninja dom is slightly faster but I much prefer the "fisher price" look & feel of the x-trader dom. it's bigger and easier to click. the EPIQ is very cool. But I really need the OCO plugin which means paying $650/month. Hopefully my volume will increase to the point where it's cheaper to pay the $650/month fee instead of higher commissions.

Ninja could have really added to the DOM for NT7 but they didn't change much of anything on the DOM. that's too bad.

cunparis 

I find the ninja dom is slightly faster but I much prefer the "fisher price" look & feel of the x-trader dom. it's bigger and easier to click. the EPIQ is very cool. But I really need the OCO plugin which means paying $650/month. Hopefully my volume will increase to the point where it's cheaper to pay the $650/month fee instead of higher commissions. Ninja could have really added to the DOM for NT7 but they didn't change much of anything on the DOM. that's too bad.

If you are with Velocity I am quite certain you can get the OCO plugin for free. Am I wrong? I actually stopped using OCO Trader and the Profit Target manager whatever it was called because I found it easier to just set the targets myself.

Mike

Big Mike 

If you are with Velocity I am quite certain you can get the OCO plugin for free. Am I wrong? I actually stopped using OCO Trader and the Profit Target manager whatever it was called because I found it easier to just set the targets myself. Mike

that is correct... OCO Trader Limited will apply whatever trade strategy you want to apply... including multi level... and it is included for free.. PS trader has similar functionality, but I see it more of use if you are trying to build a position and want to to do it over time.. like, if you wanted to buy 100 cars on 6E at a price range.. at least that is how I understood it.

MD Trader seems to have an OCO as well, but it is manual... so OCO Trader Ltd is automatic once you drag the instruments you want to trade and activate them... I was able to duplicate most, of the functionality that I had chased with the NT7 ATM, with the exception of of accelerating the trailing stop after X number of ticks.. if it has it, I have not figured it out yet...

I would have liked their time and sales to allow me to aggregate the trades taking place at a given price if at the bid or ask... I would have liked that feature.

Here is the link for the PDF explaining how it works..

https://customer.velocityfutures.com/download/OCO_Trader_Ltd_User_Manual.pdf

and here is the dl link

https://customer.velocityfutures.com/download/OCO_Trader_Install_v1.3.2.exe

I have been getting up early, to build some discipline, and I started to trade at around 8AM EST 6E.. mainly because I believe it to be slow at that time and also because I wanted to continue to play with XTrader... the first 5 trades were all losers... but not because I got it wrong, but rather because I didnt know how to properly use the platform... specially OCO Trader Ltd... did you know that if you launch it more than once, all of them will take effect on your single DOM orders? yep... It drove me crazy and I could not figure out why the trades were not working or happening at odd places... gave up around 9AM since I was late for work.. closed my dom, ignore the messages.. and hopped on the car.

as it turns out, when I got to the office two things happened... I had clicked one time too many or one of the stops was still active when I closed it.. and, I came to find a nice(could have been really bad) surprise when I launched my workspace on XT... I had made a 2K profit.. now imagine if that had been a loss... an order had remained open... and contrary to some opinions, it seems as OCO orders via OCOltd are on the exchange, not your workstation.. not sure how it happened yet.

I was puzzled so I kept trading through out the day on my main market, TF... and I was up and down all day, again, learning a new platform.. but by following my setups and sticking to my plan I "made" money... I dont count the 6E wins... that could have been a loss just as well.. got lucky and trend was down..

anyhow, if you are going to use XT.. learn its limitations... I am yet to figure out how to have a strategy that will move me to BE+1 and then start trailing after x ticks... it will either trail from the start or not, which means you have to manually move your stops and that doesnt really work (it will cancel them instead).. I figure how to do with OCOtraderLtd... but you have to go back and reset it afterwards.. which is a no-no for me if I am interrupted and then forget and get back and enter a trade and get stopped out on 2-3 ticks..

so what can you learn from my "successfull" screw up... LEARN THE PLATFORM BEFORE TRADING WITH REAL CASH... luckily for me, I didnt trade with real cash this morning when I got up or else I would have lost my 3% in the first 30 mins of trading since I kept making errors with the platform.. and possibly even more if that $2K "winner" had been a loser and using real money... I wonder the velocity risk mgmt would have gotten me out of the trade if they saw a 10% loss for the day... hmmm.. who knows... anyhow... I am a bit proud that I was able to focus on the plan I formulated while I was driving to the office, even though there were some sweet shorting opportunities today and I was super tempted to just log out of TTSIM more than once and trade real funds.

so stick to your plan, and learn the platform... or risk losing the account for real... I will assume last week was merely luck as my target is only 4-5 ticks and I won the first trade... so I stopped trading within 5 mins... I am sure I would have had the same issues I did this morning given the first 2-3 were losers... and I kept trading since I had not lossed 3% yet..

anyhow, enough ranting.. and now, the P&L .. :P

with futuresbroker.com, you can only talk to a broker if you need to get out of a position. If you have any other questions, you can't call to talk to anyone. Everything is done through email from then on. So if you need support, it has to be done through chat or email.

bathrobe 

futuresbroker.com is free and less ($4.26) I think they are a subsidiary of Velocity though.

cunparis 

I just went to the futuresbroker.com site and I did the live chat and I ended up chatting with my Velocity rep! So I told her I was looking for another broker with Bund on sim. She wasn't amused.

Did your Velocity rep mention why they are 24 cents less if you use futuresbroker.com? Does one seem better than the other, for any reason other than commission?

Michael.H 

with futuresbroker.com, you can only talk to a broker if you need to get out of a position. If you have any other questions, you can't call to talk to anyone. Everything is done through email from then on. So if you need support, it has to be done through chat or email.

I will say though every time I've done an online chat with velocity or futuresbroker (same) I've gotten someone within seconds. And oddly enough it's been the same person. Not sure how they do that. If they're not busy or if they only have one person handling requests.