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I should mention that the theory behind my interest in these kinds of indicators goes back to my reading of Benoit Mandelbrot's "The (Mis) Behavior of Markets" in which he talks about "fractal time." (A GREAT read BTW.)
Actually, I want to muck around more, as there are sudden spikes of volume on very short time frames, and then again slower changes in the rate of trades that manifests itself as wider and narrower vertical lines on tick & volume charts. It would be nice to try and capture as much of this as possible.
I would agree it's hard to make money off of just option spreads without a big account or being a millionaire already.
A spread costing more than two legs is already biting into a lot of commission and bad fills multiplied. Some just use single options to day trade stocks with the leverage.
LOL, screwed up subject line: "An Apple a day keeps the Doc away"
What a day in AAPL today! No futures traded today, had way too much fun in AAPL weeklies....
Overall market look:
My Weeklies and how they look on daily charts:
Multiple trades …
re: TOS before TDAmeritrade. The active trader DOM is now a lot better than before TDA. Before, the slippage and lag on anything including futures was horrendous. Now even filtered, it's at least updated more comparable to other feeds making it possible to scalp.
My question is something i have been experiencing in data price feeds difference between thinkorswim platform prices and snap ticket. I run two computers one dedicated to thinkorswim and the other with ameritrade home page, with snap ticket. there is a noticeable lag in price quote changes with thinkorswim. The snap ticket quote seems to be reflective of the actual price, but who knows at this point. The other test would to open another brokerage account and compare the three data feeds.
Have any of you traders experienced this situation. Would this be the result of "ghost exchange" ?
Yes, ToS can lag sometimes, often when the exchanges get busy. Last time I noticed it was the day before yesterday. You can find examples on YouTube and also no shortage of complaints on ThinkScripter | thinkScript Indicators for thinkorswim. I hadn't seen it lag compared to a "sister" product before. Interesting.
I am used to the feel of ToS, and think it is great for longer term analysis. I think their option analyzer tool is unique in the industry.
But if you are looking to do real time/short term trading, then from a latency, commission and margin perspective, I think it would behoove you to look around some more...
Trading: Equities, index options and futures/futures options
Posts: 190 since Apr 2010
Thanks Given: 66
Thanks Received: 198
1) How long have you been using ThinkOrSwim?
3 yrs
2) What are your favorite features of ThinkOrSwim?
options analysis
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in ThinkOrSwim that you could not do without?
options analysis
4) Do you use ThinkOrSwim in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
sim
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does ThinkOrSwim help you with this?
analysis of discretionary options trades
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use ThinkOrSwim?
easy
7) How do you rate ThinkOrSwim's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
never used it
8) Do you believe ThinkOrSwim is competitively priced?
free with TDA account so yes
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for ThinkOrSwim?
never used it
Platform: colocated proprietary, IB for LFT, TOS and TS for options and scripted strategies
Trading: ES, NQ, GC, SI, CL
Posts: 22 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 2
Thanks Received: 7
1) How long have you been using ThinkOrSwim? 2+ years
2) What are your favorite features of ThinkOrSwim? Options analysis tools
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in ThinkOrSwim that you could not do without? risk profile is the feature I use most so that would be a deal breaker feature for me.
4) Do you use ThinkOrSwim in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it? Live trading
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does ThinkOrSwim help you with this? Discretionary. It helps me with the extensive charting an options analysis tools. Trading forums our also a big plus
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use ThinkOrSwim? Quite easy to learn
7) How do you rate ThinkOrSwim's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Excellent responsiveness and support
8) Do you believe ThinkOrSwim is competitively priced? Yes. Plafrom and feeds are free. Commissions are negotiable based on activity profile
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for ThinkOrSwim? As I mentioned earlier, the community part is very rich and supportive. I would give it a very high grade.
Overall I am very pleased with ThinkorSwim. It certainly look like a platform designed and developed by traders for traders. One of the best platforms I ever used.
2) What are your favorite features of ThinkOrSwim?
The "Green Yellowizer"... heh, just kidding. I like the pricing, and trading from the charts, when they're working.
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in ThinkOrSwim that you could not do without?
price.
4) Do you use ThinkOrSwim in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
simulator works ok.
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does ThinkOrSwim help you with this?
discretionary.
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use ThinkOrSwim?
I think its very unintuitive. For example, I consistently struggle with the order book. If there are several complex orders queued up, you can't tell one from the other because there's very little in the way of graphical delineation. Not all orders can be sent to the queue using the same procedure.
7) How do you rate ThinkOrSwim's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Customer service is always good.
8) Do you believe ThinkOrSwim is competitively priced?
yes.
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for ThinkOrSwim?
very good. Their instructional strategy is to produce a constant stream of content for learning the platform and trading strategy development.
Additional comments: The charting side of the software has been in a steady decline for years, they constantly add new bells and whistles, but other essential functions like auto-scroll will break and stay broken for weeks (as it is at this time). Also, a right click on the chart will produce a menu, and another right click will produce a selection. This situation causes a lot of frustration with errant selections when the software struggles to debounce. The menu should require a left click for selection, which, I believe is the industry standard, thereby eliminating the requirement to debounce. IMO, the software has become an unmanageable behemoth (like windows).
The range of customized aggregations for volume profile is limited and there is no bar-centric volume average study. Maybe these functions can be scripted in. The data feed seems adequate in my limited experience.
Considering the fees, product range, data and software, its cheap, but the software is no stepper.
1) How long have you been using ThinkOrSwim? +3 Years
2) What are your favorite features of ThinkOrSwim? Great Android App. Very easy to use once you tackle the initial learning curve. I can set up contingency orders based on option prices while looking at the underlying price. Doing this eliminates a great deal of 2nd guessing yourself.
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in ThinkOrSwim that you could not do without? The analyze tab. Once the positions starting having legs, it is a god send... much better than the average brokerage who has clunky web apps that take forever to load.
4) Do you use ThinkOrSwim in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it? I place live trades but I have used the simulator as well as 'lookback'
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does ThinkOrSwim help you with this? Discretionary. ToS helps me because it allows me to place the trade guidelines during AH/PM when there is little/no emotions in the trade
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use ThinkOrSwim? It wasn't easy but I really liked trading so it was fun. If you are hungry to take advantage of the platform, you will learn a lot and enjoy the things you learn
7) How do you rate ThinkOrSwim's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it? Very professional and quick responses. Once of the few brokerages with weekend customer service as well.
8) Do you believe ThinkOrSwim is competitively priced? Meh. Too expensive for my taste. I do most of my execution with OptionHouse nowadays
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for ThinkOrSwim? I don't interact as much as I used to, but it was very lively. They have end of week market review seminars for free that were great. Podcasts are avaliable to download as well.
I have used TOS for almost 7 years now. While i like the system they have i feel that their pricing is not competitive any more.
I would like to know what you TOS users are paying. Please PM me and I will share with you my commission rate. I am thinking about calling them and asking for a lower commission rate.
