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Hi, I've been playing around paper trading the ES with TOS Paper Money and the chart data is obviously realtime (or within seconds of it). However, the data for order entries seems to lag realtime price action by minutes. Is this correct? The current price on the chart is different from the price in the DOM/active trader.
If this is so, are there any brokers/platforms that let you paper trade in real time with real time order entry? I know the fills will be different from real trading, but at least it will allow me to better time entries based on my strategy and system.
Thanks!
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I really struggled for quite a while with some of the strategies in TOS. I found the Paper Trade platform essentially useless due to the timing being off. In addition, I wanted to use the platform for strategy testing. I found that this too was severely lacking.
Fortunately with some help from @kevinkdog, I moved to TradeStation and experienced a significant improvement!
Also, I am very curious about NinjaTrader as it seems very capable.
And of course, the support for NT at Big Mike's is huge.
I've used Ninja Trader a lot, and it's OK. It's easy to use. The good thing about TOS is, so many indicators are built into the platform, but it's fairly complicated to navigate around.
So Tradestation offers a good real time paper trade?
I would personally never use paper trading / demo account to "prove" a strategy works (as in, is it profitable long term).
I think those demo accounts can be useful to learn features of the platform for ordering (if you are discretionary), or to help test out your automation if you are rule based trader (nothing worse than having bad code fire off hundreds of simultaneous orders).
Used the proper way, demo accounts definitely have their uses.
Put some skin in the game. Paper trading has its purpose, but don't be one of those guys who is on sim for months or years at a time, then goes live and blows up within a few weeks. Get on sim long enough to learn how to use the software and research a general methodology, then put some skin in the game even if you are risking only $5 a day on spot forex with 10 cents a pip.
I have a son who confessed he was trading a $3 account, ZARJPY spot. There are brokers who cater to everyone.
Yes--got a kick in the ass and some cash. But the bottom line is even if paper does corrupt it's better than spending mortgage money until you learn how to trade.
papermoney realtime in ToS is possible.. they set that for your profile at their end....need to contact support via chat.. you may or may not get it though.. depends on your real account status..
Broker: Mirus (Broker), Continuum (Data), Dorman (Clearing)
Trading: Futures
Posts: 202 since Mar 2013
Thanks Given: 428
Thanks Received: 202
Howdy; just so that you are aware, paper trading delays the Active Trader prices by some amount of time, while the chart data is real time. Therefore, paper trading with the Active Trader in TOS is kinda weird, as you can practice placing your order (including brackets if you wants), but I would NOT recommend simply clicking the "Join the Ask" of "Buy the Bid" etc buttons, because these buttons grab their price info from the Active Trader (delayed) prices rather than the real time chart prices. However, the preceding presupposes that you prefer to place your trade based on the chart (live) prices as opposed to the Active Trader (delayed) prices.
I've found that I have to quick check what the chart price is, then I enter the trade (I use a bracket) within Active Trader by simply clicking in the "Bid Size" (if you're going long) or the "Ask Size" (if you're going short) on the price that you want the trade to show up on the chart (real time pricing).
This can be a pain in the butt, because in order to "lock" the Active Trader from jumping around the delayed price, you have to hover over the Bid Size or Ask Size column to temporarily halt the Active Trader prices from jumping around on you. Again, this is a pain in the butt because the Active Trader is jumping around on delayed prices rather than the real time prices that you are likely going to be trying to practice on.
You can then manage your trades from either the chart or Active Trader, as your bracket orders (if you use them) will be executed in real time using the chart price data and not the Active Trader delayed data.
I just recently came up this learning curve, and hopefully the above will help the new TOSwimmers get more bang for their buck during paper trading.
Let me know if you have any questions...I can't say I'll have an answer, but if I don't know the answer to your question, maybe it will force me to continue learning about how to better use the damn platform.
