Affordable Platform for Trading with Market Statistics

[illumintai 10]

Like many of you I feel enlightened to be learning about the volume distribution to look for high probability trades.

 

I have tried and tested (mainly using Excel) many indicators and strategies but the market statistics seem to offer genuine picture and reasoning into determining market movements, more so than other price patterns like - H&S, symmetrical triangles, breakouts, etc.

 

So, I am looking for an affordable charting package that offers VWAP/Vertical volume/SD and etc that is necessary.

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks.

Edited January 6, 2010 by illumintai

[sevensa 10]

Like many of you I feel enlightened to be learning about the volume distribution to look for high probability trades.

 

I have tried and tested (mainly using Excel) many indicators and strategies but the market statistics seem to offer genuine picture and reasoning into determining market movements, more so than other price patterns like - H&S, symmetrical triangles, breakouts, etc.

 

So, I am looking for an affordable charting package that offers VWAP/Vertical volume/SD and etc that is necessary.

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks.

 

What is your definition of affordable?

[illumintai 10]

for a university student with a part time job. I have savings for the trading capital. and the job for the platform+data - max $100 a month(?)

[sevensa 10]

The only software I know which could have most of the features you are looking for and price range is Ensign and Atrader.

 

Ensign is probably the more robust of the two, but comes with a monthly subscription fee.

Atrader is still very much a work in progress, but is interesting and the developer is very responsive with adding new features when you ask him and I think you can still get it for a one time fee instead of monthly subscription.

 

NinjaTrader would work too, but you will need to purchase/create the indicators you are looking for and it also have a monthly subscription fee if you do live trading, otherwise it is free.

 

You probably could get this with Amibroker also, but will require some programming from your side and AFL gets a bit to get used to and learn. But Amibroker is very flexible with backtesting and might be time well spent down the line.

 

Your biggest cost would be a datafeed and for under $100, I don't think you will be able to use one of the pure data feed vendors and will have to go with a feed from a broker. You might be able to squeak by with IQFeed or Barchart if you sign up through the link provided at Ensign's website, depending on the exchanges you want to subscribe to. To get a feed from a broker, you will have to open an account.

 

Ensign supports more feeds from brokers than ATrader. I suggest to look it's supported brokers to see which one has the lowest minimum balance requirements to open an account. Also check which one come with monthly fees. IB for example waive their $10 month data fees if you have commissions of $30 in a month.

 

Your best bet is probably to get trials for some of the above and see which one you like.

[sevensa 10]

I've been poking around on Sierra Chart's website this afternoon. That might be a viable option as well that could fit into your budget.

[Chouca 10]

Running VWAP/SD and volume histogram on OEC at 0$ a month.

 

The VWAP indicator is an EL indicator you can download at this excellent forum.

 

Martin

[daedalus 10]

+1 for OEC. It feels good to have no monthly expenses to trade for the first time in my life.

[sevensa 10]

I thought the volume distrubition in OEC is only on the DOM and not on the chart? I also recall a thread on here somewhere about some kind of bug in OEC with volume in the DOM? Was this fixed?

 

If they have a volume distribution chart indicator, this would be awesome indeed and you can't beat the price. I guess one can program one too. Not sure if the OP would want to.

[daedalus 10]

I'm about 95% sure they have it on the chart as well.

[i trade 10]

I can vouch for Sierra charts...great program plus you can't beat the pricing for what you get! I was using it with OEC data for a while. OEC data was pretty reliable but they have some issues with reporting bid/ask data from time to time. Barcharts.com data is also an alternative for a data source to feed Sierra.

[Chouca 10]

OEC has a volume histogram on the left or right side of the chart if desired.

It shows volume for the current trading day - yet no possibilty to configure it for desired timeframe, I have asked for it to be developed in coming version, don't now if it will happen.

 

Martin