professional trading for myself- what my options are

[tuscan]

with very limited capital , what is the cheapest way to open an account and have a proffesional platform, with a possibility to trade from a "ladder", I mean exchange, futures, low latency and depth of market trading not a spot market
One exchange, one product.

to sum up, I'm looking for
1. a broker or sth with the lowest financial requirements to open an account,
2. a proffesional platform that can provide depth of market trading (ladder) (btw what other platforms beside cqg and stelar provide that?)
3. low latency and not only one buy and one sell but like 10 levels of buy and 10 of sell market participants' working orders displayed on my ladder I suspect that this is additional cost of service provider (?)

the current margins are known to me
charting as well would be needed
thanks for any advice

 

[pboyles]

Look at Global Futures, various platforms from pretty basic all the way up. Most have charts and ladder. Other options are Velocity Futures and I think maybe AMP Futures plus others. I think they start at about $50 a month for data. I think minimum acc sizes are pretty low, 2k or something last time I looked.

 

[tuscan]

pboyles thank you very much
I'll analyse them and post the exact conditions in the following days

 

[Aston1st]

Prospeads are good. They are spread betting but offer charting and Squwark. Cover most markets and entry level of 1 lot on the Bund for £500.00

 

[Michael8667]

Mirus Futures are pretty good $500 margins on E-Mini and min funding is something like $2,500.

Platform is Ninja trader or Multicharts.

 

[tuscan]

Thank you guys I'll check that out.
At Global Futures they say they don't have a minimum to open an account but if you want cqg ic they want you to have $5000. I dont see the point of puting in more than $2500 if i want to trade 1 lot at the begining
Generally those brokers dont seem to be reliable institutions I dont say thaey are not, but they dont care about it, just check Global Futures address and see the building on google maps 3d LOL
What do you think about AMP trading ? The same story.
But what can be reliable, MF Global ?
Advantage futures are interesting and they invest in technology heavily but they want $10000

If I have cqg data feed and for example ninja trader do I get the same data as the cqg ic user with the same speed ? AMP is listed on cqg webpage as their fcm partner and they offer ninjatrader or sth (i'm not sure now) with cqg data. But that whole company looks like somne kind of a scam

 

[MajorDutch]

You can trade 1 contract of E-Mini with Global Futures. You can use the turbotrader free software if use cgq data clearing through AMP futures. They will accept $300 (1 RT commish) to open an account to trade 1 contract. You wont get lower than this if you want to trade chump change. RT commish is negotiable but if you are doing low volumes (which you will be) $3 would be about the best you are going to get.

If you want better software you will need to deposit $2000 for ninjatrader, dunno from how much for xtrader. I really like xtrader and ninja is alright, the Position in Queue (PIQ) feature in xtrader is sweet. I have no experience of turbotrader but it is probably alright for basic scalping.

 

[Hotch]

If you want better software you will need to deposit $2000 for ninjatrader, dunno from how much for xtrader. I really like xtrader and ninja is alright, the Position in Queue (PIQ) feature in xtrader is sweet. I have no experience of turbotrader but it is probably alright for basic scalping.

Isn't the PIQ really really inaccurate? Never found it much help. What market are you trading, never met anyone who found it useful tbh.

 

[MajorDutch]

Isn't the PIQ really really inaccurate? Never found it much help. What market are you trading, never met anyone who found it useful tbh.

dunno only really dabbled with trading the esmini and Treasuries my main experience has been trading spot FX on longer t/f's I am guessing with experience you would get a feel for your true PIQ anyhow.

 

[DionysusToast]

with very limited capital , what is the cheapest way to open an account and have a proffesional platform, with a possibility to trade from a "ladder", I mean exchange, futures, low latency and depth of market trading not a spot market
One exchange, one product.

to sum up, I'm looking for
1. a broker or sth with the lowest financial requirements to open an account,
2. a proffesional platform that can provide depth of market trading (ladder) (btw what other platforms beside cqg and stelar provide that?)
3. low latency and not only one buy and one sell but like 10 levels of buy and 10 of sell market participants' working orders displayed on my ladder I suspect that this is additional cost of service provider (?)

the current margins are known to me
charting as well would be needed
thanks for any advice

If you are under-capitalized, you should not trade a futures market directly. By under-capitalized, I mean less than $10k US. Even with $10k US, it's going to be a struggle.

You can't get 10 levels without paying for it. You can get 5 with NinjaTrader and you can get that + data for free for an amount of time.

Some brokers offer XTrader for 'free' but this comes with a charge of an extra $1 per r/t. At that point, you might as well be with an SB company in terms of entry cost.

It's hard to be any more specific. You haven't put down a budget for data/platforms and you haven't really given us any idea of how low you need to go in terms of size of account. Is it less than $1000?

 

[tuscan]

Thank you MajorDutch that's really valuable

"If you want better software you will need to deposit $2000 for ninjatrader, dunno from how much for xtrader. I really like xtrader and ninja is alright, the Position in Queue (PIQ) feature in xtrader is sweet. I have no experience of turbotrader but it is probably alright for basic scalping."

is that still about AMP ?

If you are under-capitalized, you should not trade a futures market directly. By under-capitalized, I mean less than $10k US. Even with $10k US, it's going to be a struggle.

You can't get 10 levels without paying for it. You can get 5 with NinjaTrader and you can get that + data for free for an amount of time.

Some brokers offer XTrader for 'free' but this comes with a charge of an extra $1 per r/t. At that point, you might as well be with an SB company in terms of entry cost.

It's hard to be any more specific. You haven't put down a budget for data/platforms and you haven't really given us any idea of how low you need to go in terms of size of account. Is it less than $1000?

$10000 in such case imo may be needed to have a psychological comfort. I don't see any other reason for it but I dont need such comfort. Or I have it because I can get more cash. I want to trade only 1 lot of eurostoxx and I don't expect to be more than 1,500 'under water' so 2,500 is enough to swim if it isn't, it means I shouldn't touch that. If the market conditions are unusual and I lose it 'accidentally' I can start again but this I think is enough. This is my first private account I was trading for 2 years other instruments with cqg ic. I don't fully understand basic things about this business from a technology point of view..
I just want to see price action and execute my trades on eurex and have 10 levels and 'real time' data not 0,5 sec latency Is the cost of exchange access and 10 levels similar for all brokers and platforms? I don't need to have sophisticated appication like cqg ic but I want to check how I feel with a minimum because this may be 100% enough for me and no need to pay $800 for platform now if others are the same data but less "sophisticated". But if the 'free' solutions are rubbish I can deposit another $1000 for data and platform I just don't know what is the difference if 'free' platforms are cqg data then I dont need cqg because there is nothing special in this application (for me). I also have not very good connection here where i am at this moment (like 120ms) and I want to see how everything works here.
I had 80 ladders at work here I want to have one. I dont count costs like +50 for 10 levels , +50 for 'free' platform or RT comm for the first month I would like to see what can I get for free. After few days I'll know my exact needs but hard to choose now some basic good solution with no demand of deposit >$5000. If there is any.

 

[DT]

If I have cqg data feed and for example ninja trader do I get the same data as the cqg ic user with the same speed ? AMP is listed on cqg webpage as their fcm partner and they offer ninjatrader or sth (i'm not sure now) with cqg data. But that whole company looks like somne kind of a scam

nope, different servers as far as I'm aware and US based so obvious latency issue if you're wanting to trade eurex

 

[DT]

Prospeads are good. They are spread betting but offer charting and Squwark. Cover most markets and entry level of 1 lot on the Bund for £500.00

That's a spreadbetting firm offering a sort of 'DMA' platform. I don't think the RT costs are great and it doesn't seem like limit orders necessarily hit the order book... probably not a good option tbh...

 

[DionysusToast]

Thank you MajorDutch that's really valuable

"If you want better software you will need to deposit $2000 for ninjatrader, dunno from how much for xtrader. I really like xtrader and ninja is alright, the Position in Queue (PIQ) feature in xtrader is sweet. I have no experience of turbotrader but it is probably alright for basic scalping."

is that still about AMP ?




$10000 in such case imo may be needed to have a psychological comfort. I don't see any other reason for it but I dont need such comfort. Or I have it because I can get more cash. I want to trade only 1 lot of eurostoxx and I don't expect to be more than 1,500 'under water' so 2,500 is enough to swim if it isn't, it means I shouldn't touch that. If the market conditions are unusual and I lose it 'accidentally' I can start again but this I think is enough. This is my first private account I was trading for 2 years other instruments with cqg ic. I don't fully understand basic things about this business from a technology point of view..
I just want to see price action and execute my trades on eurex and have 10 levels and 'real time' data not 0,5 sec latency Is the cost of exchange access and 10 levels similar for all brokers and platforms? I don't need to have sophisticated appication like cqg ic but I want to check how I feel with a minimum because this may be 100% enough for me and no need to pay $800 for platform now if others are the same data but less "sophisticated". But if the 'free' solutions are rubbish I can deposit another $1000 for data and platform I just don't know what is the difference if 'free' platforms are cqg data then I dont need cqg because there is nothing special in this application (for me). I also have not very good connection here where i am at this moment (like 120ms) and I want to see how everything works here.
I had 80 ladders at work here I want to have one. I dont count costs like +50 for 10 levels , +50 for 'free' platform or RT comm for the first month I would like to see what can I get for free. After few days I'll know my exact needs but hard to choose now some basic good solution with no demand of deposit >$5000. If there is any.

Here's my 2c....

Crossland (Where Speed And Service Matter | Crossland LLC Website) is probably going to give you the best deal on commissions (e.g. $2.82 on an ES r/t, not sure abt Eurex).

They'll give you NinjaTrader platform & Zenfire data for free.

For a slightly higher fee, you can hook up Kinetick, DTN.IQ, TT Feed, CGQ data to Ninja. Expect that to cost somewhere around $100 a month if you trade Eurex or $70-ish if you trade CME/CBOT markets and the broker supports the CME waiver program.

Ninja only shows 5 levels, so...

You can add on a 3rd party DOM to give you the 10 levels with no performance impact. Search around & you'll find something.

That's the cheapest route that gets you set up with the lowest monthly costs.

Cheers

DT

 

[tuscan]

nope, different servers as far as I'm aware and US based so obvious latency issue if you're wanting to trade eurex

Yes, I am aware of that.
But if my location was USA (or when I'm in United States and I want to execute trades on american exchange) is it exactly the same thing having ninjatrader with cqg data as having CQG platform when it comes to latency, data accuracy, reliability of this etc ? Or the "not-cqg-platform" is slowing the process?

 

[DionysusToast]

Yes, I am aware of that.
But if my location was USA (or when I'm in United States and I want to execute trades on american exchange) is it exactly the same thing having ninjatrader with cqg data as having CQG platform when it comes to latency, data accuracy, reliability of this etc ? Or the "not-cqg-platform" is slowing the process?

If you have Ninja, it connects directly to the feed....

So - CGQ + CGQ platform is the same as CGQ + Ninja platform.

BTW - CGQ is not the best choice of data feed, nor is TT feed to be honest...

Think PATS.... ::whistling

 

[DT]

Yes, I am aware of that.
But if my location was USA (or when I'm in United States and I want to execute trades on american exchange) is it exactly the same thing having ninjatrader with cqg data as having CQG platform when it comes to latency, data accuracy, reliability of this etc ? Or the "not-cqg-platform" is slowing the process?

Sorry I assumed you were UK based. I've not used ninja trader so I don't know. I'd be inclined to suspect that it won't necessarily be the same though that doesn't necessarily mean it would be inferior to any other particular feed.

Would probably be best to do a bit if research yourself - I'd guess if you phoned CQG they'd maybe tell you it's not the same and if you phoned the broker offering it they might tell you it is... try phoning them and asking directly then also get yourself a free trial and compare/test yourself... if you don't necessarily need the full fat CQG then also maybe look at CQG trader, also compare using ninja with other feeds... TT etc... (I believe the performance you'll get from TT, for example, is somewhat dependent on the broker's own investment in their hardware too and how they've configured the feed).