ES Journal - 2019/2020

speedo · Mar 23, 2020

Laissez Faire said:
AMP seems to generally have happy customers. The only reason I didn't go with them is that I want to use Ninjatrader (old habit). If not, I would have used AMP.

Ditto, I had an account set up when Mirus crashed but never funded it and Ninja has been fine since.

Overnight · Mar 23, 2020

Noone123 said:
How strong are they financially? Margin is a double edged sword, but IB is ridiculously conservative.

Look at it this way. They at the very low-end of the FCM scale when it comes to segregated account funding. But even after this latest financial crisis, they are still there, offering their less-expensive day-trading margins, aside from that day and a half where they wanted full exchange margin for both sessions.

schizo · Mar 23, 2020

Noone123 said:
I think IB has a longer list of products to trade vs. AMP. Although, cheaper commission and lower margin is tempting.

Unless you're a jack of all trades, there's really no need. Plus, you should really specialize if you want to succeed in this endeavor.

Noone123 · Mar 23, 2020

Overnight said:
Look at it this way. They at the very low-end of the FCM scale when it comes to segregated account funding. But even after this latest financial crisis, they are still there, offering their less-expensive day-trading margins, aside from that day and a half where they wanted full exchange margin for both sessions.

I see. I may explore AMP. Although, I am getting very comfortable with IB mobile platform that I have been using to trade lately.

schizo · Mar 23, 2020

Noone123 said:
How strong are they financially? Margin is a double edged sword, but IB is ridiculously conservative.

I have no idea. But I've been with them since 2013 and I've not had any bad experience. They offer both CQG (free) and TT (premium), and they're both fast in executions. Another major plus is that they provide many trading softwares (almost too much) that you can toy around with.

Big AAPL · Mar 23, 2020

Sorry to interrupt this thread I have been with AMP since they opened shop. I have Ninja (grandfathered) But I can tell you this...CQG with ANY of their front ends will get
most scalpers a true price. CQG is rock solid. I use Ninja but I am grandfathered in. Fast transfers and above board executions with no nonsense so long as you are not overseas with questionable credentials.

Overnight · Mar 23, 2020

Big AAPL said:
Sorry to interrupt this thread I have been with AMP since they opened shop. I have Ninja (grandfathered) But I can tell you this...CQG with ANY of their front ends will get
most scalpers a true price. CQG is rock solid. I use Ninja but I am grandfathered in. Fast transfers and above board executions with no nonsense so long as you are not overseas with questionable credentials.

I'm also grandfathered in with Ninja. Too bad NT7 HAS BEEN SUCKING ASS lately! (We now return you to your regularly-scheduled love-fest of Llama spittle.)

Laissez Faire · Mar 23, 2020

I want to be grandfathered in too, but I missed the boat.

Pulling availability from other retail brokers seems like a dick move on NTs part. They basically force you to trade with them or IB. I was close to ditching NT because of that, but I'm basically married to the platform and have a lot of custom stuff made already...

I used IB + Ninja in the past, but IB's margins are simply too high on average for a day trader. IMO at least.

EDIT: I could add that so far NT Brokerage (Dorman) is working fine with me.

syswizard · Mar 23, 2020

Noone123 said:
How strong are they financially? Margin is a double edged sword, but IB is ridiculously conservative.

Indeed, current ES margin is $25k, NQ is $37k
GLOBEX ES E-mini S&P 500 ES 25288 N/A 25288 20230.40 USD Yes 25288 20230.40
GLOBEX NQ E-mini NASDAQ 100 Futures NQ 36848.59 N/A 36848.59 29478.87 USD Yes 36848.59 29478.87

Buy1Sell2 · Mar 23, 2020

Long 2247.00 Initial stop 2232.00