What software do I need to get started?
- Thread starter Mkadyz
- Start date
I would personally tell you to look into CoolTrade. This auto trader, for me, is proving to be a pretty good little setup. You can implement your strategies as you choose to develop them. All at a cost that really makes sense.
And after testing your strategy offline with the actual market data, you can then implement that exact strategy and trading plan directly with IB. I like the ability to forward test verses backtesting. It makes you have to plan your development strategy looking forward. For me, it's been pretty cool!
And after testing your strategy offline with the actual market data, you can then implement that exact strategy and trading plan directly with IB. I like the ability to forward test verses backtesting. It makes you have to plan your development strategy looking forward. For me, it's been pretty cool!
I would think you only really need 3rd party software to make-up for what your broker does not carry or lacks in quality. I dont use any 3rd party stuff so I cant tell you whats good or not..so do the research in "software" here on ET if you haven't already. Medved quote trader seems to be a good choice, sence its free.
- nathan
Open account with IB -- lots of compatible software and they provide a good data feed (which would cost $ with eSignal, iqfeed, etc).
Charting: IBCharts (free) or Quotetracker (free) or Sierra (almost free) all will work with the IB data feed; you want one of these because IB's platform doesn't do so well with charting.
Trade Management Software: IB's Trader Workstation is a great platform and can be made to do a lot of things with hotkeys, but you'll probably want an add-on so that one click creates the bracket trade that you want, profit target, stop loss and all (IB's TWS can do this, but no bells/whistles); examples are ButtonTrader (not cheap), AutoTrader, BracketTrader, NinjaTrader, ZeroLineTrader and others. Favorites vary but all are very good (I have a slight preference for ZeroLine -- it's relatively cheap and looks a lot like IB's TWS).
Then at year-end you'll want IB add-on software to figure out the tax mess (mainly if you've done a lot of stock trades and need a Schedule D).
Good luck.
Charting: IBCharts (free) or Quotetracker (free) or Sierra (almost free) all will work with the IB data feed; you want one of these because IB's platform doesn't do so well with charting.
Trade Management Software: IB's Trader Workstation is a great platform and can be made to do a lot of things with hotkeys, but you'll probably want an add-on so that one click creates the bracket trade that you want, profit target, stop loss and all (IB's TWS can do this, but no bells/whistles); examples are ButtonTrader (not cheap), AutoTrader, BracketTrader, NinjaTrader, ZeroLineTrader and others. Favorites vary but all are very good (I have a slight preference for ZeroLine -- it's relatively cheap and looks a lot like IB's TWS).
Then at year-end you'll want IB add-on software to figure out the tax mess (mainly if you've done a lot of stock trades and need a Schedule D).
Good luck.
It may be, I was going off of what IB charges you for a CBOT live ticker subscription.
IB said I needed a minimum of 5K to open an account. Does that sound right to anyone?
Thanks to everyone else for the awesome info, you've given me a lot of research to do. Please keep it coming if you have any more to add.
Thanks