No need to switch. Use Sierrachart, the SC exchange data option, and the number bars study for starters. Personally I'm not a tick scalper but I do know the above is quite capable and the data (which I use) is unfiltered.
New to futures coming from forex, few questions...
- Thread starter fxRichard
- Start date
No need to switch. Use Sierrachart, the SC exchange data option, and the number bars study for starters. Personally I'm not a tick scalper but I do know the above is quite capable and the data (which I use) is unfiltered.
Hey Richard,
No prob. I'll try to answer some of your follow up questions.
In regards to tick data/the problem that you had with IB: The first thing you should make sure of is whether this was an issue on your, or their end. If you're trading off of wifi, or a non top tier internet connection, that issue may be on your side. The continuum data feed is pretty solid. I have experience with Dorman and Phillip... Phillip Capital is awful, however Dorman is great, so if you open an account with Ninja, I would make sure it is cleared thru dorman.
You're not going to have much of a latency difference with Continuum or Rithmic, however, if latency is truly something that affects your trading (99% chance that it doesn't, if you're just pointing/clicking without automation), then I recommend you use a front end platform that is proprietary to the FCM. This way, you will be receiving data close to a half second faster than Continuum or Rithmic (again, this really doesn't make a difference if you are inputting all of your orders yourself).
Wifi or broadband connection isn't going to make a difference here. The feed is not dynamically deciding to drop market data updates unless buffers are being filled and I doubt this is even remotely an issue here.
The primary concern is how IB coalesces their data before it's even sent out to the end client.
The nice thing about SC data is it's irrelevant who your broker is. I use SC data with IB and the IB data is only used for instruments SC doesn't cover.
The primary concern is how IB coalesces their data before it's even sent out to the end client.
The nice thing about SC data is it's irrelevant who your broker is. I use SC data with IB and the IB data is only used for instruments SC doesn't cover.
Thanks again for the reply. I believe the issue is similar to what i960 states, I think IB sends their data in batches every x ms. With that being the case most people won't notice if x is low but trading on a single tick chart its very noticeable.
My manual style consists of a mix of market orders and limit orders with a preset max loss automatically entered upon entry. I have some automated signal generation for the higher time frames (1min), and will be running some fully automated stuff after I port it over.
The issue with the current IB feed I'm seeing is in my charts it will look like the market stalls which can be a potential entry exit for me but if that stall is not real and because IB feed is batching ticks and sending them over slow it will kill me even if I'm manually entering as I have seen too many times in just the last week where I get an influx of data and everything has changed in that short amount of time.
I'm not running any HFT arbitrage code or anything so a few ms here and there are no big deal but what I have seen from IB won't work from a futures standpoint.
I appreciate your input on Dorman and Phillip capital, I will take it into account when deciding. Another thought would be a paid data feed with clearing through IB. Not sure if that is better than Dorman...the commission NT has through Dorman are pretty decent in comparison.
As for continuum and rithmic, if both are solid then either should work. Thanks again for your input.
Thanks i960, I believe you are correct in regards to IB and how their feed works. Surprising for such a large broker. I'm not familiar with Sierra Charts but will look into it. Thanks for your input.
Thanks wrbtrader, we are both in agreement here. I have no intention of live trading and figuring it out as I go. I'm actively watching a few of the more popular instruments in futures at the moment while adaptive everything from currencies over. I will say that after some time watching other instruments ES is pretty slow and may not be the right thing for my style. NQ looks a bit better to name one. Thanks for your input.
Thanks for your response xela. You are correct that ES is very slow compared to the other instruments now that I have some time watching a few of them. My comments about EURUSD being slow attended from the fact that I use a single tick chart not x ticks so if the market is active it moves, if it's slow it's dead etc. Apologies for the confusion there.
Out of curiosity how have things been going for you since you moved over from currencies? Any growing pains in adapting?
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Well enough for me to have wished I'd taken this advice about three years earlier, when it was originally offered. Unfortunately I can be very difficult to teach. I have Asperger's syndrome and sometimes just have to work things out slowly and methodically, for myself. But overall, I'm doing exactly the same things as I was, from constant-volume bars instead of timed bars, and each month it's producing, on average, about 40% more income than it did for the same risk parameters. So it's been a very significant improvement (that's on the basis of only 9 months' "new figures", so far, but it's also been more than 1,000 trades, and my feeling is that it's clearly statistically significant).
I certainly won't be switching back. My overall ipression is that people who have made a living from trading spot forex, and switch to futures, don't switch back.
Surprisingly not at all. But I'd been looking carefully and practising for 6 months before I switched.
It makes sense though. Because they are such a large firm, sending data to so many users is difficult, and to send it as unfiltered tick data would likely be extremely expensive.