Software Setup for Daytrading Equities

[sme]

For those of you who daytrade equities, what software/services do you use for:

(1) charting / IB front-end
(2) datafeed
(3) real-time market scans

I am based in Canada and plan on focusing on Canadian equities.

For:
(1)
In addition to volume histograms, I like looking at tick histograms. Does anyone know of a charting software where this is easy to setup for real time and historical charts?

Quotetracker--love its simplicity, but I am unable to setup tick histograms

Ninjatrader--the support forum says tick histograms can be done with a custom indicator (starting from zero NJT programming experience haven't started trying to figure it out though, will have to look into it)

SierraCharts--have read good things about them, but I find simple things like their drawing tools for trendlines and fib retracements to be difficult to use and this unfortunately quickly turned me off their software (though I think it can do tick histograms)

Amibroker--currently using this for some EOD stock charting and am able (via manual importing of ASCII files) to chart tick histograms in addition to volume. Haven't tried it for realtime data (and not sure whether tick histograms are possible). Plus it seems manual orders to IB are not possible (only automated are)?


(2) Currently demoing the IQFeed for Canadian equities. Was considering using IB for real time TSX data, but have read that its data is a bit flawed for building tick charts. Does anyone have experience with other realtime and historical data sources for the TSX?


(3) It seems like Trade-ideas is one of the few that offers this service.
I notice DTN.IQ offers "Custom Scans" for $25/month (has anyone tried this)?


Comments appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Sharp2be]

Data Feed - IQFeed (including TSX Equities)
Software

Amibroker - excellent, the most powerful in terms of resources if you know how to program.

QuoteTracker - most friendly and requires zero programming -- light, fast.

NinjaTrader - best execution platform... and also the best for futures trading if coupled with a TT or Zen datafeed.

 

[Bolimomo]

Quote from sme:

For those of you who daytrade equities, what software/services do you use for:

(1) charting / IB front-end
(2) datafeed
(3) real-time market scans

I do. I use TradeStation for (1) and (2). I think they have real-time market scans (your #3) for something like most active of the day, gap-up/down, etc.. I just have never used them.

They allow you to do a "Radar Screen" to do custom scanning in real-time (e.g. Stock XYZ just goes above 20MA in a 5-minute chart, something like that).

I love their charting capability. You can use most of the indicators they provide right off the built-in library. Or you can write your own indicators (and I do).

Trade over 5000 shares of equities a month to waive the platform fee. Something like $8 for 1000 shares. It's really next to nothing if you trade actively.

Not sure about Canadian stock markets. Check with them.