where to trade

yip1997 · Apr 12, 2006

I plan to start trading eminis, and wonder which broker is good.
What is the cost of trading in terms of commission, market data, software etc?
Are there any simulation softwares available to backtest your strategy?

Quark · Apr 12, 2006

I moved to Open E Cry from IB last week, and I've been happy. They have their own DOME with no monthly charge. Commissions are higher than IB or others ($4.80 RT), but I've had no issues with the platform or the feed. Reviews here on ET are pretty good.

That said, I'm a small fish. There are a tremendous number of issues to consider when selecting a broker. Perhaps you could post your trade plans (scalping, short term intraday, position trading?) so others more experienced can weigh in.

yip1997 · Apr 12, 2006

I just start to learn and have no real strategy yet. I will trade intraday full time, and start with 1 contract each trade. Is the commission flat rate or per contract rate?

Quark · Apr 12, 2006

The commission rate is per contract.

If you're planning to scalp intraday, I'm not the guy to answer your question. From what I've read on ET, the platform, data feed transport, hardware and broker back office issues are HUGE, and I'm sure there are other considerations.

For intraday moves of a few minutes to a few hours, OEC would probably be fine, but then so would many other brokers.

rickty · Apr 12, 2006

Quote from yip1997:

I just start to learn and have no real strategy yet.

You'll probably ignore this advice but don't start trading with real money until you're verified that you have a profitable strategy. I don't know if Open E Cry has a demo account but I know that IB has one. My advice to you is not trade with real money until you have at least two or three months of successful trading using a demo account.

Richard

yip1997 · Apr 12, 2006

I will start with the demo and paper trade it.

Quark · Apr 12, 2006

Quote from rickty:

...I don't know if Open E Cry has a demo account but I know that IB has one...

OEC has a demo that simulates the live platform well. It makes good use of a feature (that can be turned off, I think) that gives small text box hints for what your options are when you hover the mouse pointer over the DOM.

romik · Apr 15, 2006

Quote from Quark:

I moved to Open E Cry from IB last week, and I've been happy. They have their own DOME with no monthly charge. Commissions are higher than IB or others ($4.80 RT), but I've had no issues with the platform or the feed. Reviews here on ET are pretty good.

That said, I'm a small fish. There are a tremendous number of issues to consider when selecting a broker. Perhaps you could post your trade plans (scalping, short term intraday, position trading?) so others more experienced can weigh in.

what is your monthly volume? Depending on how many r/t you do each month, you could also consider getting free X_Trader platform with Velocity (I am not too keen on them as they are self-clearing firm and haven't been around too long) and Global Futures. This is just a suggestion, not advice or a plug for other brokers.

I've been using X_Trader and tried OEC demo recently, some features are really good on OEC and hoping to get them on X_T on ver 7.

murray t turtle · Apr 15, 2006

Quote from rickty:

You'll probably ignore this advice but don't start trading with real money until you're verified that you have a profitable strategy.

I don't know if Open E Cry has a demo account but I know that IB has one. My advice to you is not trade with real money until you have at least two or three months of successful trading using a demo account.

Richard

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VP1997
Rich is right.
If profitable on stocks mabe cut papertrading to 1 month;
however I STILL papertrade even when real time trading ES.

Still Papertrade setups that are not quite as high probability as real time money.
Interactive Brokers is excellant;
use thier emini charts charts some , BUT NOT with out back up charts.

Wisdom is profitable to direct.

Use limit orders almost always;
it requires me to plan more.

murray t turtle · Apr 15, 2006

Quote from murray t turtle:

===============

VP1997
Rich is right.
If profitable on stocks mabe cut papertrading to 1 month;
however I STILL papertrade even when real time trading ES.

Writing paper trades & realtime trades /time down enable study after market hours.

Still Papertrade setups that are not quite as high probability as real time money.
Interactive Brokers is excellant;
use thier emini charts charts some , BUT NOT with out back up charts. Wisdom is profitable to direct.

Use limit orders almost always;
it requires me to plan more.