Is it common with brokers that only offer paper (PDF) statements of your account/trading activities?

[tiddlywinks]

Just saying...

Most PDF's can be converted or exported to a .doc or .xls format.
From there, a line parser, or whatever else can be written.
Basically, once exported/converted, almost anything can be done with the data!!

 

[M.W.]

IB, Baxter, Pepperstone and Lmax.

LOL. Right.

It seems very antiquated to me. I have no complaints about Dorman, though. It's a great broker which is very, very well capitalized.

I figured that when NT is establishing a new brokerage in 2021 they'd be more modern, though.

Which broker are you using for futures then?

 

[M.W.]

Yeah, why not scanning in the paper records and using OCR. I heard the technology is matured by now. Lol.

Just saying...

Most PDF's can be converted or exported to a .doc or .xls format.
From there, a line parser, or whatever else can be written.
Basically, once exported/converted, almost anything can be done with the data!!

 

[mikeriley]

There's always advantages and disadvantages to every
Platform and Broker. But NT is a game changer with
it's ability to use trade copier.

 

[ET180]

Still trying to find a way to get IB to stop sending me quarterly statements by mail.

 

[Pekelo]

Still trying to find a way to get IB to stop sending me quarterly statements by mail.

That is easy. Move and don't tell them your new address.

 

[Laissez Faire]

Just log into NT and view the performance tab (graphs). From there you have a world of choices. More than I can count, to view your equity curves.

That's just gross performance, though. I could add commissions, but it would still not be quite correct due to various fees, etc. And Ninjatrader themselves have explicitly said to me that it's not mean for tracking account performance which to me seems like a VERY odd statement. What's the use of it then?

It seems to track gross performance correct 99 % of the time, though. But there have been some discrepancies once in a while.

 

[Laissez Faire]

Just saying...

Most PDF's can be converted or exported to a .doc or .xls format.
From there, a line parser, or whatever else can be written.
Basically, once exported/converted, almost anything can be done with the data!!

I considered it.

Current operation is that I export my daily trade performance report from Ninja to Excel. I then have written VBA which automatically imports this data to my P&L sheet and formats it according to my own criteria.

I then fill in net P&L from my PDF statements and make sure everything lines up. I have considered converting my PDFs and automating this part, too.

However, all this is WORK and potentially error-prone. I think this is a step or operation that shouldn't be necessary to do in 2022.

Only one or two poster answered the main question though, so I'm still not quite sure what's normal in this day and age.

 

[TheDawn]

Hello everyone.

Over the last few years I've been with Dorman Trading through Ninjatrader and eventually moved on to Ninjatrader Brokerage which now have their own brokerage.

Trading wise I don't have any complaints, but I find it cumbersome that if I want to track my performance/equity, the only way to do it is by manually inputting key numbers from my broker statements into Excel.

Simply put: There's no way to log on an online portal to view my equity curve, daily % change, weekly % change, etc.

I can log on to Ninjatrader (the trading software) and see my current account equity. That's it.

I've automated this process in Excel as much as possible, but at the end of the day I still have to physically download PDFs and type in data manually.

I know Dorman have been around like forever and is a solid brokerage. With NT starting a new brokerage in this day and age I figured they would offer something more modern, but still only PDFs.

Is this the industry standard in 2022?

Thanks.

Brokerages are required to report to your transactions as part of client service due diligence but they are not obligated to provide any functionalities in the area of analysis of your trading performance. Equity curve daily% and etc. would fall in the category of analysis. Many brokers do provide analytical functionalities as part of their reporting software but it's something extra that they do. NinjaTrader is making itself out to be a discount brokerage for the cost-conscious so not surprised if they just provide bare-bone transaction reporting.

 

[Laissez Faire]

IB, Baxter, Pepperstone and Lmax.

Seems to be mostly offering FX and not futures?

I’m considering alternatives now. Tradovate being a strong contender, but will take the time to review options.

It would be convenient to stay with NT and not having to spend time learning a new platform, but I’m at a point where my patience have grown thin and it would be stupid to not consider options.

The software have been mostly great and stable, but lately it’s been buggy and even freezing to the point where I have to kill it with task manager.