What are your favorite trading platform features?

T

TheGoonior

I'm writing my own trading software and rather than signing up for oodles of demo accounts and sifting through them, I thought I'd ask what features actual traders love/hate about their platforms (yes, despite the fact that this is ET, you will be given the benefit of the doubt if you reply. :D )

I'm looking for those little cool features that really make a platform shine and make you say: "damn, I can't live without that."

Things that I know that are cool already and will have:
1) DOMs
2) trading on an actual chart.

If you don't care to go in to nauseating detail, simply direct me to a particular website and say: "Go! Fetch!"

Platforms I'm grabbing from currently:
Ninjatrader/Xtrader (DOM)
Ninjatrader (Charting)

I'm gearing this toward futures (ES, YM, CL), since those are my primary vehicles of interest.

Thanks for your replies.

And yes, I may be re-inventing the wheel, but it'll be MY wheel!
 
I think you are wasting your time (which will be at least a year, very pobably many more). Instead of making money by trading the already great platforms on the market (with modest fees).
 
Yeah, I know most people would tell me to just pay the damn money and use an existing system, but I've got that "do-it-yourself" attitude and it's a platform to teach me C# and Windows software development (engineering background).

Also, I use IB as my broker and I like the executions/fees, but their front end is wretched, so there was incentive there as well. If I want to use IB, then I would need to use something like NinjaTrader (or Button Trader), or modify an existing open source platform (like JSystemTrader).
What other options are out there?

It does give you an appreciation for what goes on inside the box, though.
Also, I don't write everything from scratch (i.e: I am currently using an open-source charting control and find lots of stuff on the different software forums as well).

So, for the sake of argument, let's ignore the fact that there are other ready-to-eat platforms out there for the time being. :)
 
Open ECry's platform is nice. And free.

My suggestion would be to take the best of TradeStation, MultiCharts, Ninja and OEC and combine that into 1. If you can do that, you mind as well sell it when you are done.

As for what those features are, every trader demands different things. That's why platforms are always adding things, doing upgrades and trying to incorporate more and more.
 
Quote from TheGoonior:

I'm writing my own trading software and rather than signing up for oodles of demo accounts and sifting through them, I thought I'd ask what features actual traders love/hate about their platforms (yes, despite the fact that this is ET, you will be given the benefit of the doubt if you reply. :D )

I'm looking for those little cool features that really make a platform shine and make you say: "damn, I can't live without that."

Things that I know that are cool already and will have:
1) DOMs
2) trading on an actual chart.

If you don't care to go in to nauseating detail, simply direct me to a particular website and say: "Go! Fetch!"

Platforms I'm grabbing from currently:
Ninjatrader/Xtrader (DOM)
Ninjatrader (Charting)

I'm gearing this toward futures (ES, YM, CL), since those are my primary vehicles of interest.

Thanks for your replies.

And yes, I may be re-inventing the wheel, but it'll be MY wheel!
More...

It is great and impressive that you are going to develop your own platform. But there are features for guys like you who want to change the world ;)
http://profstation.com/trading_terminal/sdk
In this case you don’t need to do the whole work from the beginning; you can just add what you need, of course if you have something to add.
 
Quote from Elajzaa:

you are very clever OP

I gotta give it to you

you are more clever than most here

YOU ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW PEOPLE TRADE BY REVEALING THEIR FAVORITE TOOLS

clever chap :)
More...

Yep, seems to be working very well so far too. Lots of incredible trading tips revealed in this little thread.

So far the suggestions were:
1) Don't bother
2) There's so much out there that it's difficult to just focus on a few things

WOW.

:)
 
Quote from TheGoonior:

Also, I use IB as my broker and I like the executions/fees, but their front end is wretched, so there was incentive there as well. If I want to use IB, then I would need to use something like NinjaTrader (or Button Trader), or modify an existing open source platform (like JSystemTrader).
What other options are out there?
More...

I tried all IB-tools, and use ButtonTrader now for 8 months and never will swap it for something else anymore.

One advice: I read in several forums, that all those developers endure a huge effort to keep their software compatible with the ever changing IB-software (which changes each month). You will need to take that into account when you try to build your own...
 
Haha...I only wish I was clever enough to reverse engineer somebody's winning system from their comment (childlike voice filled with wonder) "I like the DOM because I can place orders with the click of a button!"

But thanks for the benefit of the doubt! :)

Thanks for the OpenECry, MultiCharts, and the SDK suggestions, I'll take a look.

And for the record, I have no desire to become a software company...when you expect dollars, people expect "polish!" and I have no desire to face "Your POS program cost me my entire 401k" emails because I forgot a damn minus sign somewhere in my code! :)
 
Yep, it's sometimes a REAL pain to keep up with IB, although now that they've actually decided to try documenting things for a change it's not as bad as it was. But for a long time, they were of the mindset: "Here's our change, deal with it"
Kind of funny, when you think about it, since TWS is really a POS.
 
Well, since this thread seems a bit out of place (as well as a bit light in content), I think I will investigate the software packages mentioned, terminate this thread, and open up a new one in the Gray-Box forum.

Peace out.
 
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