X_Trader $3.30 Total Round Turn

AMT4SWA · Nov 10, 2003

I would love to print out my trades with JTrader...but my "reports" section is blank...can't use the "print" option in the "reports" section if there is nothing there. I have been told by a tech at AF this is a problem in my platform.

Chris

Quiet1 · Nov 10, 2003

i'd like to know AF's base RT Eurex commission please...lets assume *ugger-all volume...what's my all-in RT rate?

Q1

PuffyGums · Nov 10, 2003

Quote from bbmat:

I am a trader and I trade successfully , although not as profitably as last year. I am not concerned with technical issues as long as my platform works on a stable basis. Everything else about interfaces does not interest me, as long as I can use my data service (Esignal), can feed my Excel sheets and Matlab tools with data, and trade on an extremely stable platform.

Why not tell us what your previous incarnations in ET have been? Your prose sounds familiar. Perhaps you are concerned if we knew who you really were, you'd be properly ignored. <p>When you write stuff like "Would you provide a trader on one of the institutional desk (for instance, at Deutsche Bank or other investment banks) with TWS you would get fired after the first crash" you make it seem to are familiar with the investment bank world which you are not or else you would know that IB's business is largely institutional and yes they use TWS or else write their own interfaces which is why those technical issues which don't seem to interest you are so important.

And why is your low message count relevant? A smart guy like you should comprehend it. Someone with only 15 posts but having such a clear cut agenda usually is the profile of a sock puppet which is what you are.

spyderman · Nov 10, 2003

IB customers to DEF

you seem to be the IB point man. Any thoughts on these issues, specifically TWS crashes?, the increased incidents this week? how stops will be filled during a TWS crash during a market break or gap? commissions/and entry exit problems for those of us who do trade size ES/NQ during a TWS crash?

thanks.....

Pabst · Nov 10, 2003

Puffy,

I traded through IB for 3 1/2 years and have paid them their props, afterall they truly revolutionized retail trading. That being said the reliability of TWS sucks. Also popular delusion that TWS is a favored institutional platform is hyperbole. Nothing against IB, I would still recommend them to semi-active traders, but while Timber Hill is definitely a trading power house, they are not a dominant clearing firm for institutional accounts. Most any large institution clears themselves, and competes against IB for smaller institutional business. I've also used J-Trader and while it's more stable than TWS it's also primative by comparison in terms of features. Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and pay for X-Trader.

Scientist · Nov 10, 2003

Quote from PuffyGums:

Why not tell us what your previous incarnations in ET have been? Your prose sounds familiar. Perhaps you are concerned if we knew who you really were, you'd be properly ignored. <p>When you write stuff like "Would you provide a trader on one of the institutional desk (for instance, at Deutsche Bank or other investment banks) with TWS you would get fired after the first crash" you make it seem to are familiar with the investment bank world which you are not or else you would know that IB's business is largely institutional and yes they use TWS or else write their own interfaces which is why those technical issues which don't seem to interest you are so important.

And why is your low message count relevant? A smart guy like you should comprehend it. Someone with only 15 posts but having such a clear cut agenda usually is the profile of a sock puppet which is what you are.

"... concerned if we knew who you really were, you'd be properly ignored."
"...usually is the profile of a sock puppet which is what you are."

ROFLMAO!

Awesome reply, PuffyGums! Excellent!
His IB thing really made laugh, too though. And hard. No idea, clearly.
Thanks for some brained words for a change.

Scientist.

FX-Trader · Nov 11, 2003

Quote from bbmat:

What I do is that I print out my positions along with trade IDs at day's end. Through this no broker in the world can tell me I was not flat. If they try then they need to 'invent' a trade which must have ocurred in between my other trades or after the last trade I took.

Good idea. I always did the same, especially with JTrader.

Ditch · Nov 11, 2003

Quote from Pabst:

Puffy,

I traded through IB for 3 1/2 years and have paid them their props, afterall they truly revolutionized retail trading. That being said the reliability of TWS sucks. Also popular delusion that TWS is a favored institutional platform is hyperbole. Nothing against IB, I would still recommend them to semi-active traders, but while Timber Hill is definitely a trading power house, they are not a dominant clearing firm for institutional accounts. Most any large institution clears themselves, and competes against IB for smaller institutional business. I've also used J-Trader and while it's more stable than TWS it's also primative by comparison in terms of features. Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and pay for X-Trader.

The debate seems to be between X-trader and J-trader. Right now i'm comparing several plarforms as well and i suggest taking a look at ffastfill as well.

nononsense · Nov 11, 2003

Quote from Pabst:

Puffy,

I traded through IB for 3 1/2 years and have paid them their props, afterall they truly revolutionized retail trading. That being said the reliability of TWS sucks. Also popular delusion that TWS is a favored institutional platform is hyperbole. Nothing against IB, I would still recommend them to semi-active traders, but while Timber Hill is definitely a trading power house, they are not a dominant clearing firm for institutional accounts. Most any large institution clears themselves, and competes against IB for smaller institutional business. I've also used J-Trader and while it's more stable than TWS it's also primative by comparison in terms of features. Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and pay for X-Trader.

Pabst,

I can generally concur with your view. What should be said though is that reliability in our age is the result of a rather complex chain of mechanisms. I am not in a position to label brokers as "retail" as bbmat says or either "small institutional" or perhaps "big institutional". It is obvious though that economics will dictate the kind of communication links these different categories can afford in their trading setup. Overall reliability cannot be separated from this truth. In fact, you may have noticed that IB offers FIX based setups on their website. I haven't picked up any echo yet about this, but I can imagine that this could be of interest once your volume gets adequate. If I would be the German Bank that bbmat likes to bring in, I certainly would look at IB's performance somewhat differently than that of my own little cable ISP link to IB. I certainly have to plan differently for adversities, isn't this part of our trade?

As to your expectations for X-Trader, I follow you here. I can tell you that I am still waiting for the first broker explaining how to set up an API with X-Trader without having to go through an unbelievable mess of redtape and finding out that brokers don't have the foggiest notion about API's. Pabst, I like your statement about IB having "truly revolutionized retail trading". Not much is visible from others to speak the truth. X-Trader may be excellent for that German Bank of bbmat's, but will it serve you Pabst and other ET people as well? We will see, I am waiting for their API to better what you called IB's "revolution"! X-Trader where are you, we badly need your API with your low commission brokers. No future for any trading system that does not include an API as easily accessible as IB's - MARK MY WORDS.

Good to all,

nononsense

nononsense · Nov 11, 2003

Hi All, I just read the following on the J-Trader thread:

Quote from mhoev:

I am with RCG (IB: eLocal) for more than a year now using J-Trader but mainly a self written trading frontend. As my application uses the same Patssystems API as J-Trader my experiences should be the same as for JTrader users. Until now I never noticed any lost fills / orders. But I do not trade every day so perhaps I was just lucky not to trade on one of the problematic days.

Order status changes and fills are fast (normally less than one second).

RCG sends me a pdf with the trades of the previous day per eMail and every month a printed statement which I use for tax purposes (I am paying my taxes in Germany). I am very satisfied with this solution.

What actually causes me some trouble is that the host and the price server connection get lost approximately one to three times a day. As the computer my application is running on is directly connected to the internet (it is located in a data center) I am very sure that this connection problems are not on my side. Does any one else experience such connection losses? Perhaps it is better with GHCO?

Hope this information is useful for someone else...

Regards
Markus

I thought this is very interesting as it sheds some light on the great uncertainty as to the cause of the problem. mhoev believes that the problem is not to be found at his side. It is not sure to me it is at J-trader's either, much can happen in between. I guess IB or X-Trader would probably in the same boat. This is what I meant by planning for adversities if your only connection is via internet. I your size is big enough, many other options, including redundant, are available.

nononsense