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Performance & reliability -- otherwise, why bother?
Ease of use & Support -- same reason
Add-on script extensibility -- because no platform is going to be complete right out of the box, and I like to tinker with them.
I am currently using Sierra Chart. (Incredible performance & reliability, only passes ease of use requirement once you have gone up a leaning curve, highly extensible. Its support is legendarily cantankerous, but I've always had good experiences with it. Sometimes you compromise. )
I have used TOS, TradeStation, NT7 and 8 and Sierra Chart, and have done trial test drives on a few others.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
Exactly the same here. I'm solely using NT 8 for about 1.5 years now and NT 7 before.
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn
Value is at bottom with virtually no votes. Yet if NinjaTrader or Sierra doubled their prices tomorrow, everyone is going to complain and say they are going elsewhere.
The extensibility answer really surprises me. Maybe no one understands that word, to mean the ability to add custom indicators or to write your own code.
I think extensibility is something that many people became very aware of from the huge number of additional indicators and strategies for many popular platforms, NT in particular, that were developed over the years, many by members of this forum, and that are available here and elsewhere. They're not the only one, of course, and the result is that non-coders know the advantages of having this capability in a platform, and assume they can get custom code produced fairly easily if they need it.
My guess, anyway.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
I chose Performance & Reliability, Ease of Use and Support, and Best Charting experience. But I regret that third selection already. Haha!
When I started trading futures I purchased a lifetime license for ninja. At the time, I was experimenting with indicators and I hadn't committed to any type of methodology. In retrospect ninja was a good platform for experimentation. But I eventually became a price-action trader, and then realized I probably had over-paid to look at 5m bars and an EMA line. Ninja is pretty expensive.
Value has become more important to me because I don't need much from a platform. I have tried TOS, Tradestation, and Tradovate. All three offer a FREE platform. All of them are pretty good platforms too but each has its issues. I really liked the Tradestation platform, but the support was AWFUL! My experience with Tradestation taught me that good support is REALLY important. .
As of now, I'm thinking about doing a demo with R Trader Pro, a free platform with Edge Clear. They offer a Rithmic data feed option too, and I've been curious about Rithmic. Also, I was impressed with the way Edge Clear handled the Phillip Capital situation. They seemed to have provided excellent communication and support to their members during the debacle.
A lot of people went from using SC for free for a long time but now have to pay which is a bit inconvenient. However I'm sure the people that love it will stick with it. But yes I agree if they doubled their price that would annoy some people.
Performance and reliability #1.
Ease of use and support #2.
Charting experience #3.
It's rare to find all three in one package. For example, Sierra Chart takes up a tiny amount of resources compared to TOS, but charting experience sucks. Conversely, TOS has great charting features, but it's a resource hog. The irony with TOS is that it was built using Java, which is known for its automatic garbage collection. However, in TOS, I find myself having to manually collecting the garbage to free up resources.
Recently, I started using CTS's platform. The charting experience isn't great, especially with respect charting spreads. It's not as expensive as the other platforms (i.e., TT and CQG, which are approximately $400 and $1400 per month, respectively), it's not a resource hog, and the support is excellent. However, it takes time to get to learn the platform.
Trading: Swing and Day Trade Index Stocks, Options and Futures
Posts: 16 since Sep 2020
Thanks Given: 44
Thanks Received: 21
I use Tradingview, main reasons are ease of use (in browser) and script extensibility. I love it that I can go from one computer to another and access the same Tradingview in seconds. I looked at other platforms, but many don't run on the Mac unless you use a virtual machine (too much hassle for me). I might be biased towards browser programs, I used TC2000 years ago when it still had Silverlight browser support.
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