are nt automated strategies reliable at all?

[rtwave]

hello everyone,


i have read some very positive reviews of nt on the internet and i'm trying to find the opinions of experienced traders who have executed unattended automated strategies on nt to know how they have done.


i have tried to find relevant discussions using the search function but it is pretty much useless.

i would appreciate if anyone can point me to discussions where experienced traders share their experiences with automated strategies' execution, reliability, robustness, fills, slippage and all other relevant ingredients for successful trading. i'm thinking about day trading es and nq contracts on 1 minute bar charts.

[koganam]

hello everyone,


i have read some very positive reviews of nt on the internet and i'm trying to find the opinions of experienced traders who have executed unattended automated strategies on nt to know how they have done.


i have tried to find relevant discussions using the search function but it is pretty much useless.

i would appreciate if anyone can point me to discussions where experienced traders share their experiences with automated strategies' execution, reliability, robustness, fills, slippage and all other relevant ingredients for successful trading. i'm thinking about day trading es and nq contracts on 1 minute bar charts.

For that kind of information, futures.io may be a better place to look. This forum tends to focus more on solving coding issues, rather than the mechanics/philosophies of trading; futures.io is a much more general forum.

You might also want to take a gander at elitetrader forums.

[rtwave]

For that kind of information, futures.io may be a better place to look. This forum tends to focus more on solving coding issues, rather than the mechanics/philosophies of trading; futures.io is a much more general forum.

You might also want to take a gander at elitetrader forums.

well, thanks for your reply.


it was precisely at bmt where i learned an important number of people consider nt the best trading platform.

i have used tradestation and consider it fairly acceptable, and it was in ts users' forums that i found some of the most valuable trading information i have learned. also, there are extensive discussions on what works and what doesn't, and what are the limits to the platform's capabilities. i'm trying to find similar information for nt.


i would want to know how have traders with automated strategies done over time, as well as the most recommendable broker and data feeds combinations regarding reliability, dependability and lowest costs.

[bltdavid]

i would want to know how have traders with automated strategies done over time

Are you asking about profits?

Very few really successful active traders are going to reveal the extent of their success. Those who become educators, or retailers, or start selling information to other traders are one thing, but otherwise, IMHO, the quiet ordinary successful trader is not keen to bring attention to themselves, since that is an unnecessary distraction.

At some point, any one who is really making a living at trading starts treating their trading as a business (which may be more a formality for tax purposes). But, once you have a successful trading business, I would bet apples to donuts that most traders will not often detail their (potentially substantial) profits to people they don't know.

All my humble opinion, of course.

as well as the most recommendable broker and data feeds combinations regarding reliability, dependability and lowest costs.

I recommend Futures.io as well.

[rtwave]

no.


profits are a function of the trading method one chooses and how well one executes it. it is a fact no one can make more than what the market gives at any given time. price action is the ceiling of what can be made following any method.


hft works great for people who put massive capital into their systems and infrastructure and find ways to pay the smallest fees and commissions possible. i don't think hft could be executed from a retail platform like nt or any other.


strategies can be automated to scalp small movements. these methods mean paying a ****load in commissions and fees and having a lot of losing trades. if there are traders who have found the way to keep risk under control and have nt run their strategies consistently while going after small scalps that's the kind of stories i would like to read. how do they handle their stops, their profit targets, their fail safes, the redundancies that must be included, etc.


the other possibility for automated strategies is to follow larger trends. this minimizes the costs in commissions but flat, choppy periods will really put a dent in your account.


i'm searching for threads where experienced traders share their experiences with automated strategies' execution, reliability, robustness, fills, slippage and all other relevant ingredients for successful trading. i have performed some searches on this fora but haven't had encouraging results. i have tried to find discussions on total costs of trading between platform fees, broker and exchange commissions, data costs, etc but haven't found any. discussions on which data feeds are best, which brokers are best, that's the kind of stuff i'm asking about.

[sledge]

no.


profits are a function of the trading method one chooses and how well one executes it. it is a fact no one can make more than what the market gives at any given time. price action is the ceiling of what can be made following any method.


hft works great for people who put massive capital into their systems and infrastructure and find ways to pay the smallest fees and commissions possible. i don't think hft could be executed from a retail platform like nt or any other.


strategies can be automated to scalp small movements. these methods mean paying a ****load in commissions and fees and having a lot of losing trades. if there are traders who have found the way to keep risk under control and have nt run their strategies consistently while going after small scalps that's the kind of stories i would like to read. how do they handle their stops, their profit targets, their fail safes, the redundancies that must be included, etc.


the other possibility for automated strategies is to follow larger trends. this minimizes the costs in commissions but flat, choppy periods will really put a dent in your account.


i'm searching for threads where experienced traders share their experiences with automated strategies' execution, reliability, robustness, fills, slippage and all other relevant ingredients for successful trading. i have performed some searches on this fora but haven't had encouraging results. i have tried to find discussions on total costs of trading between platform fees, broker and exchange commissions, data costs, etc but haven't found any. discussions on which data feeds are best, which brokers are best, that's the kind of stuff i'm asking about.

says the guy with nothing

rtwave
Junior Member

Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 7
Thanks: 6



good luck!!!

[bltdavid]

i'm searching for threads where experienced traders share their experiences with automated strategies' execution, reliability, robustness, fills, slippage and all other relevant ingredients for successful trading. i have performed some searches on this fora but haven't had encouraging results.

Have you looked at the journals section at Futures.io? Some traders provide lots of commentary on their results. Try to focus on those who are auto trading. I think the journal feature allows comments, so ask questions to anyone you find interesting.

To really get the most benefits from BMT (aka Futures.io), you'll need to become an Elite member, which last I knew required a one-time fee of $100 to register.

i have tried to find discussions on total costs of trading between platform fees, broker and exchange commissions, data costs, etc but haven't found any. discussions on which data feeds are best, which brokers are best, that's the kind of stuff i'm asking about.

Excellent question.

Why not start a new thread on this topic?

I agree with Koganam that NinjaTrader forums are probably more focused on providing support specifically for their product.

For questions related about brokers, costs, data feeds, etc, you might elicit greater discussion if you start a thread on Futures.io or EliteTrader.

And, finally, I've seen discussion stymied on some of these topics because the vendors of products that receive poor reviews may actively try to suppress and/or retaliate against those comments.

[bltdavid]

The topic of this thread asks,

are nt automated strategies reliable at all?

My answer is yes.

But the devil is in the details. Define "reliable".

[rtwave]

says the guy with nothing

rtwave
Junior Member

Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 7
Thanks: 6



good luck!!!

well, i have no experience whatsoever with nt, there's nothing i could share myself.

i began reading nt's basic educational resources after i tried to code a couple indicators but ran into some problems. i haven't placed a single real trade with nt, nor programmed not even a single strategy either.

my posts have been questions about code and wider subjects after i realized the search function was not very helpful.

if you want to ask any particular question, you are welcome to.

[sledge]

well, i have no experience whatsoever with nt, there's nothing i could share myself.

i began reading nt's basic educational resources after i tried to code a couple indicators but ran into some problems. i haven't placed a single real trade with nt, nor programmed not even a single strategy either.

my posts have been questions about code and wider subjects after i realized the search function was not very helpful.

if you want to ask any particular question, you are welcome to.

And again - you have nothing.

What is your experience elsewhere? What are you trying to accomplish ?

It probably won't be any or worse here... Your questions are too generic.

[rtwave]

The topic of this thread asks,

My answer is yes.

But the devil is in the details. Define "reliable".

well, the bottom line would be whether is it possible to consistently make profits with an automated strategy on nt. more specifically, i would say nt is sufficiently reliable if automated strategies can be left trading unattended for a couple of hours and also overnight and they do take the trades they should as price action presents them and not stop working or make huge mistakes.


i do have an account on bmt. actually, that's where i read numerous recommendations for nt. i will go back there to try and get a more detailed overview of automated strategies on this platform as well as all the other particulars required for successful trading.

[sledge]

well, the bottom line would be whether is it possible to consistently make profits with an automated strategy on nt. more specifically, i would say nt is sufficiently reliable if automated strategies can be left trading unattended for a couple of hours and also overnight and they do take the trades they should as price action presents them and not stop working or make huge mistakes.

with NT Chart Trader:

NT7 crashed only once on me after some mega Trading day I had... This last fall 2015...

and NT7 once spit out garbage positions once and had an update a few days later that fixed issue. ( early 2014???) (this was after the 2 month ZENFIRE fiasco that was a train wreck waiting to happen.

So yes- it can be reliable... depending upon your internet connection stability...

the Profits and losses are UP TO YOU.

[bltdavid]

well, the bottom line would be whether is it possible to consistently make profits with an automated strategy on nt. more specifically, i would say nt is sufficiently reliable if automated strategies can be left trading unattended for a couple of hours and also overnight and they do take the trades they should as price action presents them and not stop working or make huge mistakes.

In my opinion, these constraints are pretty basic.

Given these constraints as the scope of what you're looking for, the answer is definitely "yes" to your question.

Now, if you have really advanced concerns about NinjaTrader, you could try getting in touch with someone like Dominique at http://dom993trading.com. I don't know Dom, but I found some of Dom's very technically advanced complaints regarding NinjaTrader extremely enlightening.

[For ex, if I recall correctly, Dom had a pretty damning article (open letter?) about getting his strategy to (I think) automatically recover/download missing historical data if the data feed connection was lost.]

i do have an account on bmt.

Excellent. Find some traders who post their auto-trading results in their BMT journals. You could gain some invaluable insights by following those threads daily.

[rtwave]

And again - you have nothing.

What is your experience elsewhere? What are you trying to accomplish ?

i used tradestation for 2+ years. easylanguage is quite intuitive and i learned to code a number of indicators, strategies, paint bars, show-mes and whatnot. i started trading futures without a full understanding of all the ****ing commissions involved and made far too many quick trades with too many contracts, assumed excessive stupid risk and was charged a ****load in commissions.


i'm a very undisciplined discretionary trader, i break my own rules, disregard effective indicators' valuable signals, tend to cut profits and let losses get too big. i have learned my lessons and know now that i could get far better results if i program a solid, robust automated strategy that makes a very small number of trades per day and let it run on its own following after price action.


if eventually i can get enough information about nt like the best brokers, best data feeds, smallest costs, solid enough programming and so on, and i am able to develop a strategy that could make profits consistently while controlling risks, i would then try to put together enough capital to trade and give it a try. meanwhile, i will just stick to doing free research on my leisure time.


i'm doing some searches and asking questions because this is a forum on nt and i want to stay on the nt subject without bringing irrelevant information to the discussion. there are trading forums where posts mentioning competing platforms, products, vendors, etc will get deleted and i don't want to have those kinds of problems.

[sledge]

if eventually i can get enough information about nt like the best brokers, best data feeds, smallest costs, solid enough programming and so on, and i am able to develop a strategy that could make profits consistently while controlling risks, i would then try to put together enough capital to trade and give it a try. meanwhile, i will just stick to doing free research on my leisure time.

NT has cornered the market space/competition as of a year or 2 ago.

Futures are pretty much their domain now as they bought out Mirus.

http://www.financemagnates.com/forex/brokers/ninjatrader-acquires-mirus-futures-launches-ninjatrader-brokerage/

Some of us are grandfathered into what we had with our brokers.

$4 round trip ES futures appears to be near standard....

I'm not seeing much difference with Rithmic and Continuum Feed....

Are you looking at scalping ticks?

What is your data connection? DSL? CABLE MODEM? 3G ? 4g? download/upload speeds? a lot of Europeans have issues in hot markets with FOMC and complain about lag... of MINUTES...

There are too many variables to answer you question.. ????


edit:

http://ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=78238