Tools of the Trade

Every now and again someone asks me about software, charts, tools, etc. that I use to trade.  Here's a quick list.  I'm considering doing a series of reviews of some of the different services sometime soon.

Broker:  Interactive Brokers

Great executions and low commissions.  Bells and whistles are missing..I'm not a big fan of their charts and various tools.  Just use them for trade execution.  Their customer service has been helpful when I've needed it but can't really speak to most of the technical tools or research they offer.

Trading Software:  Ninja Trader

Ninja Trader is the main software that I use to trade.  Currently trading on Ninja Trader 7.  I've played with NT8 and like it a lot..just easing into the new platform before I start actually using NT8 to trade live.  Charts are friendly and everything is very customizable.  There's a script editor based in C#, so custom programming is available.  Moreover, there's a pretty robust strategy wizard that makes it easy to program and test strategies without even knowing how to code.  Most importantly, you can implement your automated strategy and have ninja trader implement the trades through Interactive Brokers via an API connection..this is the main reason that I started trading with Ninja Trader.

Server:  Speedy Trading Servers

I run all my trading software and brokerage software on a server with speedytradingservers.com.  They are very reliable, reasonably priced, and have had great customer service.  Highly recommend them if you're running automated strategies.

Others:  

Bloodhound by Shark Indicators

An add in to Ninja Trader.  Pretty nice tool that allows you to develop indicators and strategies within Ninja Trader.

Meta Trader 4

I use MT4 some for currency trading.  There are just some features with this platform that I like, especially on the automated side.  It's not as robust as Ninja Trader but it works well if you're focused on trading currencies.

Amibroker

Same as MT4 but for other reasons.  There are features in Amibroker that are cool for strategy testing and development that you don't find on other platforms.  I don't use this one that much but have found it to be useful at times.

ThinkorSwim by TD Ameritrade

I do a little bit of trading on TOS but not much over the last 4-5 years.  I still like some of the features in TOS and really like the ease of programming indicators and strategies.  Unfortunately, there's no way to actually automate any of the strategies which is why I made the jump to Ninja Trader.  Still, it has some nice features, especially for collecting data on multiple instruments or for options.  If I were sitting in front of the screens and discretionary trading all day, I'd have a screen with TOS open.

Futures.io

A great site.  The Admin and big dog, Big Mike, really did the trading community a service by getting this up and keeping it going over the years.  I've mostly been a lurker on this site but have found the members area to be very helpful for getting indicators and trading ideas.  It's a nominal subscription fee and is worth every penny.

IQ Feed

While I currently am not using IQ Feed, I have used them in the past.  I pay for the direct stream data from the exchanges for trading but have used IQ Feed for historical data for testing purposes.  It's very good and reasonably priced.

Tick Data Suite by EAReview

This is a must if you are testing strategies in MT4 or MT5.  The tick data is high quality and allows you to test strategies with a very high quality tick modelling rate.  Essential if you are testing strategies and want to have an idea of what they will actually trade like when you go live.  Very reasonably priced as well.

Strategy Quant

A very cool strategy development tool.  It uses random generation and genetic optimization to test thousand upon thousands of combinations of signals to develop strategies and then it lets you export the strategies into a code for Ninja Trader, Meta Trader, TradeStation.  The exported strategies are pre-coded with nice money management and profit target/stop loss features.  Overall its a cool program, however,  it is major curve fitting and there are some frustrating aspects to the program itself.  I've heard the customer support is not very good..I've never tried contacting them.  Needless to say, it's a decent program and I've pulled 2 strategies from it that I've live traded.

Build Alpha

Build Alpha offers the Traders Tool Box and I've only recently purchased it and started playing with it.  So far, I'm very impressed.  It's similar to Strategy Quant, in that you can use optimization to test thousands of entry and exit signals to develop strategies and then export trading code to some of the main trading platforms on the market.  David, the founder/owner is very helpful and responsive and he posts a bunch of helpful videos on the website that walk you through the whole program.  The main features that jump out at me so far are the various built in statistical tests for validating strategies and the ability to save multiple strategies into a portfolio and test the portfolio as a whole.  Very unique and very cool.  I'll be spending a lot of time on this one in the near future.

I'm sure there are a few things that I'm forgetting and I'll update this post later if I think of anything.  There are definitely plenty of tools readily available today that are mind blowing compared to what was available just 10 years ago.  There's no perfect software or tool, they all have their pros and cons but this is just a list of some of the resources that I have found useful.  FYI, I was not asked to post any reviews and I have paid regular prices for all of the services (I'm not big enough for people to give me free stuff in return for reviews..lol(although I was asked years ago to review a Harry Dent book in exchange for a review..I declined..lol)).

Happy Trading.

TheLawyerTrader
George