I'm NOT going to be trading today and tomorrow.
Something else has caught my interest - something I believe is knowledge that I have to have as a serious trader.
Until recently, I've never really given much thoughts to issues such as data feeds, robustness of trading platforms, and how my orders are processed (the routes they take to get to the Exchanges, the intermediaries involved, the clearing process etc, etc), coz they are hardly topics you'll find in your Trading 101 syllabus.
For some, the above might NEVER be an issue. But for me, having a thorough understanding of the workings within the industry and the order flow process is instrumental in guiding my decision making in the various aspects of my trading career.
As I've said before, I have no intention of changing my trading style just to get around a problem that I can readily fix by simply eliminating certain undesirable variables. The way I trade is the outward manifestation of my core beliefs and assumptions- about the market and the mobs that trade them, and about myself - as well as my personal values. I can't trade any other way except that which comes as 2nd nature to me , especially if it's one that gives me an edge.
It makes sense for me to look for alternatives that accommodate me, allow me to exploit my edge, and keep me in business.
If I were a farmer running a LARGE farming operation today, I'm not going to be using horses (inefficient, and could trample me to death), coz it simply doesn't make sense when my competitors are using tractors.
Something else has caught my interest - something I believe is knowledge that I have to have as a serious trader.
Until recently, I've never really given much thoughts to issues such as data feeds, robustness of trading platforms, and how my orders are processed (the routes they take to get to the Exchanges, the intermediaries involved, the clearing process etc, etc), coz they are hardly topics you'll find in your Trading 101 syllabus.
For some, the above might NEVER be an issue. But for me, having a thorough understanding of the workings within the industry and the order flow process is instrumental in guiding my decision making in the various aspects of my trading career.
As I've said before, I have no intention of changing my trading style just to get around a problem that I can readily fix by simply eliminating certain undesirable variables. The way I trade is the outward manifestation of my core beliefs and assumptions- about the market and the mobs that trade them, and about myself - as well as my personal values. I can't trade any other way except that which comes as 2nd nature to me , especially if it's one that gives me an edge.
It makes sense for me to look for alternatives that accommodate me, allow me to exploit my edge, and keep me in business.
If I were a farmer running a LARGE farming operation today, I'm not going to be using horses (inefficient, and could trample me to death), coz it simply doesn't make sense when my competitors are using tractors.
13 comments:
What scares me most is no matter how clever my set-up gets (in terms of feeds, brokers, etc) I am dependent on a piece of 1970s copper wire that leaves this house, passes through a big swaying tree and is then strung loosely between a dozen wooden poles before I lose sight of it.
start with the classic Paul Tudor Jones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwleW-6xhoI
wallstreet warrior show
http://www.hulu.com/wall-street-warriors
getting more technical market delta
http://portal.knowledgebase.net/display/2/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=305237&r=0.7769129
even more detail
http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Exchanges-Market-Microstructure-Practitioners/dp/0195144708
LOL!!!! UF, stop being so humorous! Now I'm torn between moving to your city and Solfest's!!
:-) Cory, you're another gem! You spoil me :-) I'll skip sleep to check out the links (I slept for 3 hours yesterday, woke up, and just couldn't go back to sleep, and started scanning hundreds of pages of web material and I still can't get enough! :-))
By the way, UF, are you from the past?? Time traveller? I've never seen copper wires strung between WOODEN poles!
ROFLOL LW.
Thanks I needed that.
I am going to add a few more things that I have noticed over the past 6months of data and DOM comparisons.
DOM executions depend on clearing server and broker connections as well as your own Web connections.
For example, TT, Pat systems, CQG, Photon Trader all have really good executions for the most part (a lot of high end traders use CQG and Photon).
Occasionally, such as during October 2008 almost all retail DOMs get overwhelmed...NT, OEC, Infinity et all.
Not sure about TS - never used it, never cared for it as it's a massive resource hog...just like Vista.
On data feeds the differences are a bit more complex than a simple generalization.
For example - on the CME data, eSignal mostly has pretty good tick feeds...mostly. But not as good IMO for data coming from CBOT...not sure why...but because I trade the YM and the bonds which are coming from the CBOT I have noticed this difference (sometimes noticeably) that data from eSignal actually seems filtered.
ZF "seems" better than eSignal on CBOT data and more accurate.
Same for DTN IQ. But DTN IQ has lagging streaming data refresh speeds although the data itself seems completely unfiltered.
OEC data falls somewhere in between eSignal (fastest refresh) and ZF (highest accuracy) among retailers. Of course some would argue that ZF would be not only the most unfiltered but also the fastest (an argument that does have merit IMO).
Transact is nowhere close.
TT data itself isn't that bad (especially on the Eurex) but data from the CME/CBOT is sub par compared to eSignal/ZF. But it filtered.
DOM executions on NT and OEC seem mostly pretty satisfactory although this is significantly dependent on your IB and clearing party.
For the most part I haven't had any trouble with DOM executions on OEC (my IB is Daniels but even TradeCenter Pro and ATC Brokers are pretty good).
I did have a couple of issues with NT DOM executions with Mirus NT-ZF a while back, but that was last year).
And while TT does execute really well (mostly) the TT data feed itself is crap.
On charting of course, to each his or her own...there are just too many variables to make any comparison whatsoever.
Having said that, EnSign is simply better IMO...but that's just me.
And although NT7.0 promises to be more robust than NT6.5...I wonder if it's moving in the direction of XP to Vista (pretty but bloatedly pointless (is that a word?..he he.
Obviously, this is a really narrow and unscientific comparison excluding a lot chart packages and datafeeds and brokers but for what its worth every little bit of info spread around helps.
Later,
S.
"The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" -Leslie Poles Hartley
Well this is a foreign country where they do things like it is the past :-)
To be fair they are squeezing 6Mb out of that copper wire when just a few years ago it was still 28kb.
If that tree sways at the wrong time my order is 'toast'!
Thank you, Sandy :-)
Yes, the info helps! Saves me a lot of time googling and ending up more confused than ever! :-)
I was using Ninja chart yesterday and miss Sierra's Counter and drawing tools :-)
Am going to check out TradeGuider RT (understand they use something like ZF) and TT for now. This is really going to take some time. Meanwhile, I'm trading light on IB.
Hope you had a good week?
UF, move to Alberta. They have OIL and I think they don't use copper wires strung on wooden poles that have to pass through swaying trees first...And you'll be so near to Solfest! LOL!
Alberta? Jules, I studied at Waterloo and I thought it was already cold enough there. It would take ten minutes for the heater in my car to get above freezing during the dead of winter. I don't think any sane person would choose to live there. Maybe that's just me :)
Well, Albert, I lived there for 10 years and I loved the cold (except when it's below -30 Celsius!), the oil (paid part of my tuition fees) and U of Alberta (heavily subsidized tuition fees) :-)
You were in Waterloo? When?
I love the cold too (especially after moving back to swampy Hong Kong). But you're right, -30C with wind chill factor (don't forget the wind chill factor!) ain't fun after a while.
Anyways, I got my iron ring from Waterloo in 2003. Water, water, water, loo, loo, loo! Ahh, good times...
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