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I have used TOS for many years now and they could use some improvements for sure but like others have mentioned there have been improvements along the way . It does work for my style of trading futures , there is some lagging at times during fast markets for sure , but that is a little better now also . Is the grass greener on other platforms , probably so , just a matter of how and what you trade . I have stuck with TOS as I like their charts .
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I will take a look at trading view charts . I tried out sierra charts and was very disappointed , the trading dom was fine but that was about it for me . Tos does lag in some fast mkts but for what I do and trade it is okay .
Charting with TOS is fine, and there are some nice features. I would NOT execute on TOS, however. Just too much lag time, and it doesn't seem like something they're capable of or even interested in fixing. Remains unclear what will happen with TOS now that TDA has been bought by Schwab, which has crappy charts and laggy executive during busy times.
I've been using TradeStation for a couple of years and recently opened a TOS account. While I like the feel of the program and the fact that it runs on my MacBook Pro without Parallels or some other Windows virtual machine, I'm finding thinkscript very lacking. I've been a professional programmer for 25+ years. EasyLanguage was a step backward compared to "real" languages, but at least it was based on Pascal. The recent object-oriented upgrades in 9.5+ also helped quite a bit. However, thinkscript is another animal altogether. I feel like I'm programming javascript for a circa 1997 Netscape browser. The editor is terrible and, unless i haven't found it yet, you can only edit one script at a time. I'm forced to copy / paste from a programmer's editor in order to have multiple files open. Fortunately, somebody created a thinkscript plugin for vscode. There are also lots of little "quirks" with the language, including the inability to reassign variables or create your own functions that can be accessed from multiple scripts. It makes translating the code I have in EasyLanguage fairly tedious.
So, while I like the TOS interface, charting, and trading tools for stocks and options, I'm not sold on using it for day trading futures, yet. I'm using the holiday break to see if I can get my indicators ported over from TradeStation, so we'll see...
Thanks! I've been browsing around a lot the last few days and I just ran across the useThinkScript site earlier this evening. Looks like they have some interesting stuff.
High volume intraday futures trader opinion. I have had both: dedicated futures clearing firm and platform with CQG, and also TOS. I recently decided to close my futures account and just trade through TOS where the rest of my money is. My thoughts:
Platform:
-TOS chart lags during high volatility, DOM does not. If you trade levels, not candlesticks, it is fine. And even if you do trade candlesticks, it's fine most of the day.
-the platform is resource heavy - RAM usage compared to Ninja, Motivewave (also Java based), or especially MT5 is extremely heavy. But if you have a good computer, its fine.
-I trade 1m candles with stops and levels with limits and am generally exiting on the bar I entered. often the position will be entered/exited prior to the chart showing price got there. the Dom shows it however. this used to be a deal breaker for me why I sought out new brokerage solution, but really it doesn't matter and would actually happen to me on CQG as well (less of a delay, but still orders filled before chart shows price at that level). So to address all those that say you can't trade intra-1m on TOS, you certainly can.
Costs:
- Dedicated futures broker will have high fixed expenses - platform, data, data feed fixed cost, data feed per trade cost, etc. if you trade lots of volume they are minuscule amounts on a per trade basis. But with TD, everything is free, customer service is great. Anytime platform lag issues have caused an issue for me, I have been refunded for losses (not refunded for lost profits though). You try to complain to an FCM about a fill issue and you'll get stuck in a blame game between the FCM, platform company, and data/execution feed.
- TOS costs can be negotiated down greatly from the stock cost to the point of being only marginally different than that of dedicated futures brokers once you factor in their other costs.
Other:
- TOS will sweep your end of day profits into either an FDIC or SIPC account; your funds held at FCM are not eligible for either protection. Security of funds is a high priority issue for me and keeping my money at TD feels much more secure to me, especially with the sweep, than any other place. Interactive Brokers is a close comparison here with lower per trade costs, but additional fixed costs (TD has $0 fixed costs).
- While not an issue for everyone, for me, I generally like having all my 'stuff' in one place. tax statements, checking on my account, etc. its all at TD.
I agree with your statements except the dom being as fast as others . I did a comparison between Sierra and TOS a couple years ago and there was a difference . It may not be at the present time I don't know . I only wish TOS would offer unirenko charts like some other platforms do .
I have recently moved back to trading both futures and Stocks, while still buying bonds for the long run. I tried to utilize TD Ameritrade as my sole source system for all, but ended up donating money to WS in futures trading. I found this to be two fold, first I sucked at day trading, my swing trading techniques are not that great for DTing. The second as others have stated is that the data feed is to slow.
For Stocks and bonds I use TD Ameritrade. For both of these, I don't need fast data as I'm more of a swing trader in stocks and a bond holder for the $. I will hold a position for as long as I want, even if it goes against me, as I like my dividends. With zero commission TOS is great for these.
For futures, in January, I bought NT with the life time license and utilize Phillip Capital. The data feed I'm using is about $40 per month, but I have not had it a full month, so I will verify this at some point this month.
I have a small account at NT, with ACH's enabled. I believe you get two free ACH's out per month and will most likely utilize that at some point. I just have no idea when, as I'm trying to grow the account now.
I'm glad I made the change from TOS to NT for futures. If I had to do it again, I would, but ensure you shop around for the interface that you like. That step took me a while and I tried out most of them.
