"Not Listed" is mostly Sierra people, right? I need to get a Sierra license just for the entertainment of the support board! Maybe I'll be able to cancel cable...

(Sorry for the de-rail...couldn't resist. )

bobwest 

These platforms are all heavy in the retail trade, at least the ones near the top that I know anything about. Further down, I couldn't say. I'm no expert on automated trading with any platform (I do my own indicator coding and have on several, but that's a different kind of thing), but from what I have seen, Sierra Chart is at least equal in this to Trade Station and Ninja, and from what I know, better than ThinkOrSwim. (I have used all four, but at different times and so I may not be up to date now about current capabilities.) I've not encountered any criticism of SC in this respect, anyway. I could be wrong, but it would be new to me if automation were not something where it's at least competitive with the others.

I believe choices such as R/Python/Matlab, Quantopian are strictly automated, Amibroker seems to have a reputation more for backtesting performance. Certainly "Excel Spreadsheet" is primarily for working out mechanical strategies. And naturally Tradestation is number one, seems to me to have the most longstanding support and community for retail automated trading. Ninja has so much market share that they would probably show up in any list. These are why I am simply wondering about the background of the survey. Often with polls, *who* is surveyed is just as important as the result. The list was posted by Kevin - automated strategy educator.

With respect to automated trading, I agree with you that Sierra Chart is just as competitive in my opinion, feature and flexibility-wise, as any other choice on the market. But in my opinion it's lacking accessibilty to regular investors for strategizing their trades, and it's not only because of very not-user-friendly customer support. The "learning curve" reputation of the platform is well documented (not deserved IMO), and that is even before you get to it's automation capabilities which require C++ or understanding it's own unique spreadsheet system for trading. These would place it not high on the list. And by the list, I meant in general on a list in the minds of regular investor / traders who might be interested in taking an automated strategy class.

Awesome Responses Gentlemen! Thanks a million....

I love the thorough and mature responses.... I have asked this question in other forums and actually get a "aggressive" responses from some dudes that have some kind for ignorant freak out --- like if I insulted their kid by asking which platform is best... and why... etc....

Almost like saying Chevy Sucks -- to a '67 Camaro owner that drives the Camaro every day and works at the Chevy plant... you know.

That is the kind of responses I have gotten. Unbelievably retarded. So I was beautifully surprised by all the great and mature responses.

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So My thoughts on this:
I do think Sierra Charts and MatLab are basically the absolute best.....
Then Xtrader for ultra reliable DOM and AutoSpreader
And then finally >>> TRADING VIEW is definitely awesome and powerful to have that reliability and redundancy in a fully backed up platform online and not dependent on local hardware.

But I have a ton of epic programs for Ninja 8 that I would need to get them all converted. And that would suck..... Because I have excellent programs from 4 different people and then a few more CUSTOM PROGRAMS I have made. :O

Right now Ninja 8 is working good -- BUT IDEALLY -- I would love Sierra Charts or TradingView. 100% ideal.
I think Trading View will continue to get better and better also...
1)it is growing like crazy and
2)those monthly fees give it constant income to improve
3) since it is cloud based they only have one platform and one running environment to really worry about = html5. They don't have to worry about MAC or Windows or Linux :O Very very cool....

My only worry about TradingView is if we can make our indicators fully private/protected. If you make an indicator in PineScript is it open to everyone or can it be protected in someway? I have to ask about that.

Epic platforms like XTRADER / AUTOSPREADER are for people trading 100's of lots at a time....
You can also trade 100's of lots in the other platforms though no problem.
Xtrader's monopoly on the ultra-high lot traders has diminished significantly with the great new platforms.

They are still epic in their Algo Creation and Execution Features AND the AutoSpreader [ which is an algo unto itself basically ]

But for everyone else especially starting out -- there is no need for that. Doesn't give you any edge whatsoever unless you are using its AlgoCreation Lab or its AutoSpreader.

At least that is how I see it. I could be wrong.

Also I don't see MatLab as a trading platform -- more of an ultra advanced research platform/tool. You can take the excellent levels you find in MatLab and export them to whatever other platform you want.

Don't be surprised if Tradingview takes over most of these guys in couple of years, they have some advantages;

1. They are cloud based
2. Most brokers (even the discount ones) are offering Tradingview charting platform. Note that these guys don't offer pine terminal for it, so you can't program on broker provided terminal.
3. Their free version is available for coding, and its backed by very involved and innovative coding community.
4. Pine is very easy to learn and manipulate, it is very verbose. And if you had any kind of previous programing experience, you can probably do it in couple of days.
5. Its easiest and free way to back test strategies and papertrade
6. There are lot of ways to get upgraded plans for cheap, one of them being active programmer or coming to referral, so its not that costly if you really need it.
7. Its visually probably most appealing platform in market atm.

TV is replacing Amibroker and Ninja in my local market.

I have no idea who the 100 people are, what their trading style was, where they are located, etc.

All I can say is they visited my blog, and decided to take the survey.

Since I do automated algos, you can assume the respondents had at least some interest in that, but many might also have been discretionary traders when they took the survey.

Sorry I can't help beyond that.

I will tell you in times of craziness Sierra with CQG feed (which I use every day) has lagged while CQGs own platforms with direct feed have been been rock solid...though u pay for many a feature including automation and backtesting


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jokertrader 

I will tell you in times of craziness Sierra with CQG feed (which I use every day) has lagged while CQGs own platforms with direct feed have been been rock solid...

Interesting, I have the same combo and have never noticed an issue.