Subscribe Feed (RSS)NinjaTrader revisited
July 7th, 2008 by eyal | Filed under Futures, Trading Resources. |
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Update: see a more recent take on NinjaTrader and alternatives for trading futures through a DOM over here. In short, NinjaTrader has disappointed many traders who are now looking for more stable and workable solutions.
I’ve been using NinjaTrader to paper trade futures in my free time :-) and I must say I’m really impressed with the application. I first came across Ninja at its very beginning almost 5 years ago when it still looked like this. And didn’t even have a logo yet. I tried it out but as a stocks trader never felt I really needed it. With the foray into futures I was looking for a charting / order execution / trades analysis software to augment the stuff for stocks. My first port of call was good ole TradeStation which I used back in 2000 when I was trading from Hong Kong. Alas, TradeStation has lots of nice eye candy and is probably great for building, testing and optimizing automated trading systems but for serious trading it flunks. So hence re-visiting NinjaTrader. And.. it’s got everything I was looking for and then some, like about a 1,000 different ways to enter orders so every trader can choose whatever works for them. I use 2 Basic Entry windows with different configurations and the Chart Trader – entering and updating orders off the chart itself (not the right side panel). Aside from the typical DOM and standard order entry screen, how cool is opening 2 order entry windows of the same type which you can completely customise starting from symbol, to stop strategy all the way to button colours? Besides that, you can also move queued up un-executed orders off the chart itself, making stop tightening a matter of 2 mouse clicks with immediate visual confirmation. Fantastic. There are tons of other cool features like the custom indicators, built-in trade performance analysis and integration with various broker and datafeed technologies. Kudos to the NT guys, they took the software a very long way and made it into a really nice product.
Gee, I almost forgot one of the best parts – free! Free charting, free trading simulator including playback of data and you can feed it data from IB TWS. Of course if you want to place real trades off it you have to subscribe. I wish the multi-broker option was cheaper so I wouldn’t have to think too much about which version to get but can’t have it all I guess.
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Tags: analysis software, bracket trader, chart trader, custom indicators, datafeed, DOM, free charting, IB TWS, ninjatrader, NT, performance analysis, trade futures, TradeStation, trading futures, Zeroline trader
The ninja web page says you get free real time scanning.
How is the scanner?
Hmm I don’t see any scanner there, there’s a Market Analyzer which you can filter and sort from what I saw somewhere in an intro but I’m just using it as a quotesheet.
Here’s the list:
You get free access to the following powerful features:
* Multiple Order Entry Screens
* Advanced Charting with Order Entry
* Advanced Trade Management
* Powerful Real-time Market Scanning
* Trading System Development & Backtesting
* Automated Trading
* Trade Performance Analysis
* Simulation and Market Replay
* Additional Analytics
at http://www.ninjatrader.com/webnew/trading_platform_ninjatrader_free.htm
Yeah that’s the Market Analyzer – see the screenshot:
http://www.ninjatrader.com/webnew/platform_market_analyzer.htm
I’ve not used it for that purpose. It’s a little like the TradeStation Radar which is of very little use to me personally although I know some people do use it.
They also have Market Profile and Volume Footprint plugins (a la Market Delta) from fin-alg.com. Costs $60 (instead of $160 for Market Delta). And if you like DOM AND free, you can use Bracket Trader for free…
I’ve only briefly looked at Market Delta, it requires more in-depth study to really comment but on the look of things I prefer a different trading style. Are you using Market Profile?
Actually IB TWS has a DOM, it’s some of the other features of Ninja that drew me to it like the dual entry windows, nice charts (tick, volume, range and not just min.), trade analysis, variety of indicators etc.
I’m using both (market delta and market profile). both along the lines of what dr. Brett describes. I think it’s really simple and plain to see. The TWS DOM is actually quite nice (has a vol-by price histogram) but I prefer bracket trader because it is simpler and mostly because it takes up less monitor real estate.
how did you learn to use MP? I saw there’s this mammoth book by the exchange but is there a better way you’d recommend?
Well, since you’ve asked:
The best and easiest way IMHO is just to watch it and draw your own conclusions. IMHO, you don’t really need to see the TPO’s, so you can just use the volume by price indicator of QT – again, just my 2 cents.
Next, read the book Mind Over Market by Dalton (the yellow book, NOT his last book “Markets in Profile”).
There is also Peter Steidlmayer’s “Steidlmayer on Markets” – but not for the faint of heart, though. Take it with you for your next vacation on some tropical island (or Ko).
Lastly, there are a number of dedicated websites:
JPJ Trading
Alexander Trading
Cisco Futures (Don Jones)
Institute of Auction Market Theory
balancetrader.com.
The last two deal mostly with intraday trading of index futures (=S&P).
IOMAT has a nice trial and free stuff.
Personally I have a membership with the balance Trader, so naturally I recommend it. It’s the most practical of those websites, IMHO.
(but if you do join Balancetrader, don’t tell Frank what I said about them TPO’s).
Plus, feel free to ask me whatever you like (it’s free).
Thanks Jeff. Reaching own conclusions is probably the hardest but best way to go about it. I’ll have a look and give you a shout when I get stuck :-)