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I was wondering besides Ninja Trader if anyone really knows what platform is currently the most widely used,
and also has an API so custom programs can be programmed into it.
Thanks
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
It's funny you say that....I don't think Sierra is that popular....Doesn't Infinity Brokers own the platform?
I am not sure about that. It does fulfill all of my questions ...popularity is the real question.
Maybe the approach should be which Broker is the most popular in the world? Wouldn't that answer
our most popular platform question possibly? Just a thought.
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
Frequency: Many times daily
Duration: Never
Posts: 5,049 since Dec 2013
Thanks Given: 4,388
Thanks Received: 10,207
Depends how you define popular. You seem to be thinking in terms of most users. If you think of it in terms of most contracts traded you will get very different responses. Most contracts will probably be some proprietary HFT systems but if your only thinking of commercially available software it's probably still TT, followed by software like CQG etc. I think TT used to claim that 60% of all electronic futures worldwide were traded on XTrader but that was before the markets went fully electronic and exploded in size like they have.
No, Sierra Chart is owned by Sierra Chart. It can be used by the clients of many brokers, as can a great many platforms.
There are platforms that are proprietary to one broker, and there are platforms that are not. It is a major effort to create a proprietary trading platform, so many brokers simply choose to utilize one of those that are already out there. There is a separate industry of trading platforms that connect to many different brokers and many different data and trading service providers.
For example, you can have a broker account with a particular broker, use NinjaTrader (or Sierra Chart or several others) as your trading platform, have your data supplied by DTN IQFeed (a data provider), and have your trades routed to the exchange by yet another service ). Or, you can have all of these services bundled by one provider.
Before Ninja Trader went into the brokerage business itself, the NT platform also was available in many different brokers. It still has relationships with a small number of other brokers to provide its trading platform.
Your question simplifies the situation a bit.
As to the most popular broker, it depends on the answer to the question, "For what?" There are brokers that specialize in small accounts for inexperienced traders seeking small initial deposits and small margin requirements (who tend to go broke). There are brokers who want larger accounts, experienced traders and which have larger minimums and margin requirements. There are many in between.
Why is the question of broker popularity an important one? The better question is what does a broker provide, and what are you looking for? Perhaps someone can give you a hand if you state your concern a little more clearly.
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
Frequency: Many times daily
Duration: Never
Posts: 5,049 since Dec 2013
Thanks Given: 4,388
Thanks Received: 10,207
@addchild is correct. Trading Technologies original platform XTrader was "THE" professional trading platform, for years/decades. They are now replacing XTrader with TT or new TT as many call it. Basically as I understand it many of their biggest clients ended up developing their own front ends. Now they are pivoting to try and be "FinTech" and cover both Pro and Retail. Me I'm hanging onto XTrader for dear life. The good news coming out of TTs recent multi hour outage is that the delayed the execution of XTrader by 4 months.
I think it depends what you are looking for. If your comparing Ninja, Tradestation & new TT then your probably right, TT is overpriced. But if you want an autospreader (or ADL), new TTs offering is a COLOCATED autospreader. As somebody who has multiple colocated servers, that I a) had to buy the servers, b) have to pay (monthly) to colocate/host and c) have to pay for XTrader, then TT actually looks pretty cheap. Also if you don't know what co-located means then a) its probably overpriced for you and b) your probably getting killed on your autospreader if using one!
). Or, you can have all of these services bundled by one provider.
