Charting to compliment IB datafeed

I really don't have too many issues with the IB datafeed. When I view the charts that TraderWorkstation provides, the data seems more accurate. But as I said before, their charts are ugly, slow and cumbersome to use.

The problem seems to be in QuoteTracker, where it has a few bugs when drawing charts it certain scenarios.

I've tried tons of charting software tonight, from Sierra Charts to Amnibroker to Ninja Trader. I still like QT the best, but I guess I need to give some of these more of a chance.

--Relleum
 
Quote from kiwi_trader:

This "trading against the best" thing is more crap. You don't have to take money from the best ... you just have to be faster than they are to take money from the worst.
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Disagree strongly.

How you're supposed to be faster than they are with a crap datafeed is not clear to me.

Given the number of otherwise reasonable guys on here who point out that the IB datafeed is shit, it's a little surprising to hear you trying to defend it. You've been accused of being an outrageous apologist for IB here, but I've always thought that you're simply a fan of the company and a user of their services who doesn't like the unreasonable IB bashing. This, however, is a bit ostrich-like, IMO. The quality of IB's datafeeed is not in question. It sucks, it's intermittent, and IB is not interested in fixing it. I have no problem with it sucking. That's not their business. It's free. What do you expect for free?

At any rate, I stand by what I said. If you can't be bothered to spend a few bucks to get a reliable datafeed in order to compete against the best in the world, you shouldn't be trading.

Good luck to the OP.
 
Quote from traderNik:



How you're supposed to be faster than they are with a crap datafeed is not clear to me.
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traderNik... what data do you use with which charting platform?
 
Never knew that. Thanks for sharing JJ.

Useful service to say the least.


Quote from JimmyJam:

No prob.

It an add-on excel application which allows easy data streaming for non-programmers in an excel spreadsheet where they can create customized formulas (something that excel, well, excels at :D ) to analyze any type of data that they want to.

http://www.quotein.com/, at $7.00 a month, you can't beat it ...

Good trading,

JJ
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Quote from traderNik:

Disagree strongly.

How you're supposed to be faster than they are with a crap datafeed is not clear to me.

Given the number of otherwise reasonable guys on here who point out that the IB datafeed is shit, it's a little surprising to hear you trying to defend it. You've been accused of being an outrageous apologist for IB here, but I've always thought that you're simply a fan of the company and a user of their services who doesn't like the unreasonable IB bashing. This, however, is a bit ostrich-like, IMO. The quality of IB's datafeeed is not in question. It sucks, it's intermittent, and IB is not interested in fixing it. I have no problem with it sucking. That's not their business. It's free. What do you expect for free?

At any rate, I stand by what I said. If you can't be bothered to spend a few bucks to get a reliable datafeed in order to compete against the best in the world, you shouldn't be trading.

Good luck to the OP.
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I've traded the IB data feed for quite a few years now.

I use the Asian server.

Up until the Chinese psychosis reached the Hang Seng a few months ago I traded that future. Its one of the fastest moving things out there and with IB data I was never lagging, always able to see what was happening (within the 250 ms sample size).

By contrast friends of mine had esignal and other (including professional) feeds. They saw lag, and other effects that I didn't get with IB.

IB used to have a problem with missed high and low ticks but after a campaign run on this and other boards now provided a true feed with 5 second bars (at the end of 5 seconds collection). They listened when we shouted loudly enough.

With Sierra Chart you can use the live data to give up to the minute ticks on a chart where true data corrects for any missed highs and lows in the 250ms samples as each 5 second bar arrives.





Now I trade SPI, STW and SGXNk simultaneously instead of HSI. These are much slower, denser data feeds. I also collect JNI and JNM to get a full picture of Nikkei futures.

Same thing. Good data. Never lagging. Almost never out (Japan was off for 30 minutes on open recently but SGXNK was still tradable). I lost HSI data twice in 3 years ... once was probably my ISP's international connection and the other was a Hurricane in HK.



If you need to see every tick fine. If you need absolute accuracy (but possibly with lag at fast times) fine. But you don't need it unless you are doing something very specialised or using a machine (in which case you should be at the exchange for 0 latency).

Most wannabe traders get trapped into repeated grail searches and many of them seem to be associated with a search for perfection and predictability that isn't part of the market's nature. Perfect data is just another path to disappointment. The best thing a trader can work on is himself or herself.

If you aren't that specialised then if you can't trade profitably with the data I see then I am still willing to bet that you cant trade profitably.
 
Quote from Relleum:

I am looking for the best price/performance charting program to hook into my IB datafeed.

Up until this point, I've been using QuoteTracker, but I keep getting corrupt charts in certain scenarios. More specifically, sometimes when I open the program, all of the charts will have the latest candle either abnormally high or low. Other times, I will backfill an intraday chart and it will show no candlesticks, but the volume bars (all neutral yellow). Deleting the chart data fixes it, but only for the current and future candles. As soon as I backfill again, it blows up.

If it weren't for these bugs, QT would be pretty much all I need. But lately, I haven't even opened it, in favor of Trader Workstation's charting. And we all know how terrible those are, but it is obviously imperative that the charts and their data are accurate.

I've tried ninja trader, and it seems promising. It just seems very cumbersome to enter stocks onto the watch list.

Are there any others out there that are in the free/cheap range that might exceed the programs I've already tried?

--Relleum
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That crap won't work for high leverged trading, if you just position trade its ok. Look at Ensign.
 
Quote from myminitrading:

That crap won't work for high leverged trading, if you just position trade its ok. Look at Ensign.
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Ensign is good using IB data unless you have to backfill.

Then forget it. You will be missing the last 3-5 minutes of backfill.
Plus you can't backfill volume or tick charts correctly. If you use
something bigger than a 2-min bar then you are usually okay.

Maybe with another data feed you will get correct backfill?

Also, Ensign lags when the market starts to move fast.
QT/IB kicks Ensign's butt in this area. Heck, it even kicks TradeStations
ass when it comes to spacing out in a fast market. I had TS
freeze for 10 seconds twice today and QT/IB just kept on truckin'.

There is something to be said when it comes to aggregating data.
You don't become the fool with the lagging quotes.

QT further aggregates the data that comes into it, which makes
it never lag the real time market.

BUT, QT and IB will miss ticks at swing hi/lows at times. You can
see it on 5-min bars, ect. You do not get every trade printed on
your chart which is a problem. Ensign is better in this area.

Maybe Ensign has changed. I have not used them since June 2007.
 
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