Setup and go questions for a Newbie

1) To get up and going in Eminis (besides knowledge) all I need is:

a) A broker
b) Charting soft
c) Intra day charts

correct?

2) Some/all brokers provide charts and even
software or visa versa what do you
experienced traders suggest?

2a) I have heard that Ninja trader is the bee
knees for order entry but most traders
seem to use esignal or TSation etc for
charting... Why? isn`t that a waste of $$

2b) Is there such a thing as free intra day
charts?

2c) Is it possible to set up a free sim account
with free streaming charts?

2d) Does charting software all have order entry
like the SuperDOM thing on Ninja?

2e) What the hell is Zenfire and why do I need
it?

3) Due to the fact that I am fresh meat I am
considering joining puretick as they appear to
be of great educational use for newbies.
Do I need to or are they simply giving
information that is freely available?

Talk to the guys at Mirus, they will get you setup with a Ninja sim account on Zenfire. Mirus has excellent customer service.

Zenfire is a data feed. It's stable and fast... the two essentials in trading E-mini's.

Ninja sits on top of the Zenfire feed and gives you integrated charting and order entry. Ninja + Zenfire gives you a turnkey solution.

The alternative to Ninja/Zenfire is Trade Maven, it provides the same comprehensive functionality for a $50 per month fee, also commissions are considerably higher at TM. Like Mirus, TM has excellent customer service.

eSignal is expensive, and does not provide brokerage services. The charting application uses a layer called a function engine which really slows down the chart refresh rate if you use custom indicators. This is a problem trading the E-mini's in fast market conditions. It does not provide the order entry functionality of Ninja or TM.

TradeStation is unstable and slow, the order management algorithm holds back native orders in mid-stream which causes real problems getting fills on limit and stop/limit orders, thus TS is not appropriate for trading E-mini's.

For the sake of completeness, I will mention Interactive Brokers (IB) as well. Generally IB has the lowest commission schedule which draws a lot of traders their way. Thus, IB has a very large user base. The IB data feed has a reputation of being touchy (unstable) at times, I believe they have made some improvements as I hear less complaints from the IB traders than I did 5 years ago. I call IB the "DIY" (do it yourself) solution, because with IB you will have to cobble together a solution set from a variety of vendors. With IB you will need an order entry application, there are many to choose from, Ninja for example works on top of IB. A lot of folks like the bracket trader application. A more advanced order management app for IB is called button trader. Keeping with the DIY theme, with IB you will also need a charting application, lots of folks like the Sierra charting app, primarily for it's low cost, the problem here is obtaining historic intra-day data for backfill. eSignal solves the backfill problem but at a high monthly cost. Given IB's large user base, pretty much every charting app on the market supports the IB data feed. Being a you get what you pay for culture, customer service with IB is considered poor (at best) to non-existent (the other 99% of the time), something to consider as a newbie starting out.

Cheers for your very helpful reply pt_emini :O). Food for thought.
I have found a very interesting broker 'Velocity Futures' who do an Emini round trip under $4 and will rebate ninja monthly into your account... Ninja comes with charts the guy told me but like I mentioned in my original post I keep hearing to not rely on it as a charting app although I really want to!

I`ll research Velocity, sounds too good to be true.

quote:

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Originally posted by Luckystar

Cheers for your very helpful reply pt_emini :O). Food for thought.
I have found a very interesting broker 'Velocity Futures' who do an Emini round trip under $4 and will rebate ninja monthly into your account... Ninja comes with charts the guy told me but like I mentioned in my original post I keep hearing to not rely on it as a charting app although I really want to!

I`ll research Velocity, sounds too good to be true.

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Hey there, Lucky.

If you're just starting out Ninja/Zen-Fire is really all you need for simulation trading. The charting software isn't robust or programmed with customizable templates but then that really doesn't concern you at this point. You simply need to become comfortable trading at near or no cost. As pt_emini mentioned, Mirus offers an integrated solution in a free demo, and they're understanding and not pushy about getting you to sign on with them. Their charts have all of the historically signifigant indicators and quite a few non-retail developments. Choose your instrument, select a 144 or 233 tick chart, throw on 89, 43, 21 exponential moving averages, Parabolic SAR, and volume then watch and filtrate the patterns.

And you'll sooner or later have to put in your 3 weeks to a month in ninja's help and video section. They've the best DOM instruction in the business, and of course we're here to help if you have any questions.

But leave premiere charting solutions well-alone for the time being; and truth be told any broker only wishes they could get their hands on you right now. Commissions? Learn how to trade first. We'll be here for you.

Here's a few links:

http://www.mirusfutures.com/futures_trading_ninja_install.htm

http://www.ninjatrader-support.com/HelpGuideV6/VideoLibrary.html

ThinkorSwim They have free charting with an account

Thanx SPQR and redsixspeed, I have started to think that mirus is the way to go for brokers.. though I`ll still be checking out Velocity.

ThinkorSwim sound very interesting.. checking them out in a moment.

Cheers

Lucky

quote:

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Originally posted by Luckystar

Thanx SPQR and redsixspeed, I have started to think that mirus is the way to go for brokers.. though I`ll still be checking out Velocity.

ThinkorSwim sound very interesting.. checking them out in a moment.

Cheers

Lucky

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Infinity is worth a look. Their trading platform is not so complex as Ninja but it's easy to work with and it's fast. Also, they provide emini data feed at no charge to feed charts like Ensign. Customer service is great and commission is low. No other service fees (i.e. inactivity or low balance). Demo account available.

Check out these links:
www.infinityfutures.com
www.ensignsoftware.com
www.thetradingzone.com


Good Luck, iDoc.

quote:

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Originally posted by iDoc

quote:

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Originally posted by Luckystar

Thanx SPQR and redsixspeed, I have started to think that mirus is the way to go for brokers.. though I`ll still be checking out Velocity.

ThinkorSwim sound very interesting.. checking them out in a moment.

Cheers

Lucky

---

Infinity is worth a look. Their trading platform is not so complex as Ninja but it's easy to work with and it's fast. Also, they provide emini data feed at no charge to feed charts like Ensign. Customer service is great and commission is low. No other service fees (i.e. inactivity or low balance). Demo account available.

Check out these links:
www.infinityfutures.com
www.ensignsoftware.com
www.thetradingzone.com


Good Luck, iDoc.

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I've heard tremendous amounts of positive feedback from Infinity customers but Indroducing Brokers in general can offer low commissions because they don't offer one-stop-shop services. And why trust your money to be routed to an FCM firm by they who aren't qualified to handle it in the first place?

In the end, if for no other reason than peace of mind, and Infinity seems to be the exception to the rule, it's worth it to trade with a direct access FCM Brokerage Firm. Thier commissions may be higher, but compared to additional fees through other companies for exchange or historical data, &c. it's actually cost effective to go institutional.

Here's a list of powerhouses around the court:

http://www.cqg.com/Electronic-Trading/Trade-with-FCM-Partners.aspx
http://www.ninjatrader.com/webnew/partners_onlinetrading_brokers.htm