Trading brokers and platforms



Guys,

It's been harder than I expected, but I think I am getting there.

I have written my SAS (Statiscal Analysis System) application to trade the emini S&P 500, and have tested it against historical data. I am extremely pleased with that.

I have decided on the trading platform to use - the AMIBROKER - primarily because I think it will allow me to integrate my trading app with it with out too much difficulty and cost.

I have decided on the data provider - esignal, and that was dictated largely by my choice of the AMIBROKER as trading platform.

The last component, opening an account with a broker, is still unresolve. If anyone among you is trading the eminis using an AMIBROKER platform, or knows of someone who does, I'd be happy to hear from you.

In the meantime, if someone can explain to me the role of the brokers and how they operate, that might clear up some of my confusion. What confuses me is that practically every broker I have come across is pushing their own trading platforms, or group of platforms. Am I constrained to use their platforms if I want to sign up with them? Can brokers accomodate someone using a different platform from what they are recommending?

Using another platform just for placing orders, will present me with some technical problems I'd rather avoid.

I think IB fits the bill, but I am new to trading, and they seem not to like that.

TIA

maskiepop
I think that most brokers run servers in their offices or at a hosted center. Your trading platform connects to their servers and then on to the exchange. So the limitation will lie with what trading servers the broker supplies. I know that one of the popular servers is PatSystems. Most brokers will give you J-Trader for free if they have PatSystems as the back-end. I know that Ninja also works with PatSystems.

So I think that the broker that you select will be restricted by the trading platform (in this case AMIBROKER) that you choose. In my opinion this is the best way to go. Select the platform that best fits the way you're going to trade or what suits you best and then find a broker that supports your hardware/software requirements.
Hi maskiepop, I am new to trading the e-minis also, but have been trading equities for awhile. I seemed to have lucked out in the fact that I found what I believe is a great futures broker, Mirus Futures. They have Ninja and if I'm not mistaken they use a system called Zen-Fire for connection, which as far as I'm concerned has been great. They are Very helpful, as I'm not a computer person They actually set up Ninja on my computer for me. Pat is the person you want to talk to. I don' normally endorse anyone and I'm not getting anything for this but you might want to give them a try.
quote:
Originally posted by Bill_47

Hi maskiepop, I am new to trading the e-minis also, but have been trading equities for awhile. I seemed to have lucked out in the fact that I found what I believe is a great futures broker, Mirus Futures. They have Ninja and if I'm not mistaken they use a system called Zen-Fire for connection, which as far as I'm concerned has been great. They are Very helpful, as I'm not a computer person They actually set up Ninja on my computer for me. Pat is the person you want to talk to. I don' normally endorse anyone and I'm not getting anything for this but you might want to give them a try.



I checked them out Bill. My first impression: they look great.
o Low Commissions.
o And I take it that you're happy with the connection speed and the service

Now, if they can help me integrate my trading app with any of their supported platforms, I'm happy.

Thanks for the tip.