Trading Software

[jdizzle113]

I've noticed from several posts that many members like to dabble in trading. I've been trading for about a year, and after a year of being a fairly unsuccessful discretionary trader (I guess at least I stayed alive), I've decided to move into the realm of mechanical trading.

So I really want to pick up a software package where I can do some technical analysis, define rules so I can do a market scan and backtest, manage my trades and has some money management built in. There's just so many different packages out there each promising that they can offer the same things and that they are the best. The ones that have stood out to be so fare are "Trade Navigator", "NinjaTrader" and "Tradecision". They all look pretty good.

If anyone uses software for their trading and is happy with the package they are using I'd be really grateful to hear your recommendations.

[El Presidente]

Whatever ken suggests.......... DON"T DO IT!!!!

[thechenman]

Trading is a hard way to make a living. If you are going to trade, it needs to be a full time commitment.

[Ethernut]

I use ThinkorSwim as a platform and really enjoy the beneifts of their charting tools. Checkem out they'll give you a papermoney account for free to see what you think. Their platform also included ProphetCharts which is pretty sweet.. If you have questions about TOS ask away..

[Ethernut]

Just as a side, it seems Chen may know something about trading.. Not knowing where you are in your skill level. ..and please dont take this as an insult. But if you cannot execute simple stock trades, with a high enough probability to be profitable. Please dont consider shelling out bucks for some magic black box platform. Start with the basics using little cash, risk no more than 2% of your capital, use stops, and learn entrys and exits. Once you can spot a high probability entry and exit at a profitable time consistently you're on your way. If you cant do that, you're in for a rough time. Sites I use for market perspective are slopeofhope.com, evilspeculator.com, gary savages smart money tracker and I listen to tom sosnoff on the TOS shadow trader.

Best of luck to you and Merry Christmas!

Ether..

[jdizzle113]

I use ThinkorSwim as a platform and really enjoy the beneifts of their charting tools. Checkem out they'll give you a papermoney account for free to see what you think. Their platform also included ProphetCharts which is pretty sweet.. If you have questions about TOS ask away..

Thanks - Just looking at their website right now - the software looks very promising - very professional - almost like Bloomberg (which is a bit too rich for my blood). Do you have to have a brokerage account with TD to trade using their software? or can it link in with other brokers (I'm with IB right now, but not too fussed about which broker I use, as long as commissions are low).

[jdizzle113]

Just as a side, it seems Chen may know something about trading.. Not knowing where you are in your skill level. ..and please dont take this as an insult. But if you cannot execute simple stock trades, with a high enough probability to be profitable. Please dont consider shelling out bucks for some magic black box platform. Start with the basics using little cash, risk no more than 2% of your capital, use stops, and learn entrys and exits. Once you can spot a high probability entry and exit at a profitable time consistently you're on your way. If you cant do that, you're in for a rough time. Sites I use for market perspective are slopeofhope.com, evilspeculator.com, gary savages smart money tracker and I listen to tom sosnoff on the TOS shadow trader.

Best of luck to you and Merry Christmas!

Ether..

Yeah, I stick to the 2% rule - keeps me alive during the drawdowns. I was doing quite well as a discretionary trader earlier - but found that my performance was influenced way too much by my state of mind. If I was in a bad way I'd enter terrible positions and then manage them poorly - had some rough personal stuff in the last few months so that's why I consider that overall my performance as a discretionary trader is a failure. I mainly want to mechanical trading since it removes that human factor of myself - so I just stick to the rules I set out in a trading strategy. I'm not after a black box - I really need a package that will let me develop my own strategy that I can write myself. This will of course require some backtesting.

[Ethernut]

Not sure how TD handles it. I was a "Swimmer" before TD bought them. You can (or could) open a paper money account for a finite amount of time to get a feel for things. They have a rich training database on shadowtrader.net as well.

http://www.shadowtrader.net/educationArchive.shtml

[Ethernut]

ThinkorSwim does allow you full access to their charting functions using "thinkscript" if you wanna roll your own. Evilspeculator built his "zero" trading system on it. Do a google on thinkscript, it has a pretty healthy following out there as well.

[Ethernut]

For even more info on how ThinkDesktop works.. take a look here:

https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/displayPage...playFormat=hide

Scrool to the bottom and click "see all thinkDesktop support media" and you'll have content to watch for hours..

[jdizzle113]

For even more info on how ThinkDesktop works.. take a look here:

https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/displayPage...playFormat=hide

Scrool to the bottom and click "see all thinkDesktop support media" and you'll have content to watch for hours..

Wow, cheers for all the help with this - some decent content to look through and get an idea of what the platform has to offer.

[stockman]

"Trade Navigator", "NinjaTrade are the best softwares i have been using them from several months

[Ethernut]

Hey Stockman, congrats on the first post! Welcome to FOH!

[jdizzle113]

"Trade Navigator", "NinjaTrade are the best softwares i have been using them from several months

Thanks stockman - Yeah, Trade Navigator and NinjaTrader are the packages that seem to be most popular. What Trade Navigator package are you on? Silver, Gold or Platinum? Also, why the need for 2 programs? Is there something that one does that the other cannnot? How are you finding "Tradesense" on Trade Navigator.