Newbie question

R

robzxcvbnm

I want to start daytrading. I need to choose a broker, a data feed (with Level II), and a charting service. I am looking for very reliable service with excellent charts and plenty of technical indicators.
I notice that a lot of you go the ala carte approach, choosing a seperate company for each service. For example the following combination seems to be popular:

Interactive Brokers for your broker
eSignal for your data feed
Ensign for your charting

Would this be a reasonable combination of services for a beginner? Also why is Ensign needed? Are the charts that come with eSignal inferior? Thanks.
 
IB is great. Recommend Townsend Analytics for data and charts. Its a little higher than esignal but not much and has a lot of nice features that esignal does not. You can scan the premarket for gaps, drag and drop from your quotes to your charts and much more.
 
I have used many different platforms including: qcharts, realtick, virtual trader and a/t financial and here is my opinion.
If you are going to be trading primarily nasdaq I would opt for realtick, but if you are going to be trading primarily listed stocks I would say a/t financial, hands down to all the other services I have used.
Just my 2 cents, and I hope it helps.
Good Luck!
 
NvrSettle,

If you are going to be trading primarily nasdaq I would opt for realtick, but if you are going to be trading primarily listed stocks I would say a/t financial, hands down to all the other services I have used.

I trade Nas almost exclusively and am curious as to why you would opt for Realtick over the others. And why, for listed, you would opt for A/T Financial. I currently use Cyber, but if Realtick would ever allow online trading within IRA's I would probably switch all my accounts over, so I would like to hear about your experiences with those brokers.
 
Well the reasoning behind my choices of chart/quote platforms is as follows:
Qcharts was my least favorite -- the quote feed is terrible and there is a lag on the level II quotes and the charts are slow to load and also sometimes lagged.
Virtual trader is a platform offered as a low-cost alternative by many of the Direct-Access providers--sometimes they give it a unique name. My problem with this platform is the charting --very,very weak charting capabilities.
A/T --by far the best for listed-- probably because I have become very accustomed to using it lately. It has some great features not available in the other platforms, and the customization features are great. Also the data is very reliable (so far). My applications are hardly/never down and I rarely/never have a problem with lag. I say that this platform is great for listed, I currently only trade listed, because I have noticed, when I glanced at it, that the level II data didn't seem too impressive, and since it's only a software app. you can't enter orders through the level II. As far as listed is concerned the TOS windows really allow you to get a good look at the market.
Realtick, I recommended, for nasdaq trading because when I used it, I remember that the level II was nicer than A/T and the order entry was built in to the level II.
When I used Realtick, I used a Terra Nova broker, which will remain nameless, and they were very good in relation to customer service and rates.
I currently use A/T for quotes/charting software, and my order entry is Redi +, which I really like for speed and ease of use and order entry.
Hope that this helps...These are just my opinions from my experience working with each of these software and order entry platforms...I don't work, nor receive any compensation for any of the products mentioned above.
Good Luck!!!
 
Nicodemus,

You say that RealTick is "a little higher than esignal but not much".

I checked the price of RealTick at http://www.realtick.com/subscription/pro_plus/pricing.asp and their price for RealTick Pro Plus is $250/month and they do not seem to offer an option to pre-pay for a year.

I checked the price of eSignal Equities at http://www.esignal.com/esignal/pricing/pricing_calc.asp and they want $149/month but will let me pre-pay annually for $948. So it seems to me that RealTick is triple the price of eSignal. Plus eSignal will let me try their product for a month for almost free.

Is there some annual deal on RealTick that I am not aware of, or is there something else that I am figuring wrong?
 
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