? Spread Bet with NinjaTrader ?

DT said:
everything really.
Click to expand...

Don't they each have a buy and and a sell price and by my experience, the prices vary from the open market by a pre-determined x ticks extra spread.
e.g. S&P 500 e-mini futures. Typical spread on open market is 0.25. For the day-traded version of that at CityIndex the spread is an extra 0.1 on either side of the trade i.e. 0.45 but they round that down to 0.4
So if the market is trading Ask 1340.25 and Buy 1340.00 , CityIndex would be at 1340.3 and 1339.9 respectively. And I can say that holds consistently... to the tick.
The list at Market Information | Indices Spreads | City Index
is correct. And the prices follow the open market.
So, again I ask what data exactly are you thinking is present in their platform but would be insufficient or absent from any other?
 
you're comparing an exchange traded product with a two way quote which you're obliged to cross if you want to place a trade... the way you place trades is different and the data (2 way quote with no size vs several levels of bids/offers) is different - a software package designed to trade one isn't instantly compatible with the other... while you might be able to persuade an SB company to implement some features you like re: trading from charts etc.. you're unlikely to find m(any) retail SB firms that would offer you an API and even then you'd require ninja to undergo a bit of customisation in order to use an API which consists of just two way quotes with no corresponding size - not to mention change the way orders are placed.
 
@DT: What do you mean 'no corresponding size' ? No need for customisation... just a simple interface. Off the top of my head a one-lot trade of ES ( S&P 500 e-mini future) is about the same as a £50/point spread bet. So very easy to translate one to the other.
 
as in you just have a bid and an offer provided by an SB firm.. that is it...

so just to recap you''d first need an SB firm willing to provide an API and then you'd need ninjatrader to change in order to handle a feed consisting of just a bid/offer for each instrument and also change the way orders are placed.
 
DT said:
can you not trade from the chart with one of these bucket shops/spread betting firms?

surely you'd be better off trying to get the specific features you want from them than asking for an incompatible software package to be made available - a retail SB firm is likely to be reluctant to supply an API to begin with anyway - putting aside the fact you're not dealing with an actual order book in the first place or standardised contracts...
Click to expand...

Yes, but they're all so clumsy and slow. Ninja is clear, simple, fast, functional, intuitive to use and should be the model for all chart trading platforms. Instead, we get things like CMC Next Gen. A lost opportunity (and an awful lot of money, if what they say is true).
 
An SB platform is always going to be slow compared to an exchange - perhaps you should trade the underlying instruments themselves instead of going via a bookie.
 
DT said:
An SB platform is always going to be slow compared to an exchange - perhaps you should trade the underlying instruments themselves instead of going via a bookie.
Click to expand...

He's not comparing with an exchange...he's comparing the fact that one UI is well designed for traders and the other is not. Usability.
 
Well he is as far as speed is concerned - so essentially you want certain chart trading related features to be available from an SB firm - you'll either need an SB firm to provide the functionality you require or you'll need ninja trader to be modified to work with the API such as you linked... obviously without the dom...
 
DT said:
An SB platform is always going to be slow compared to an exchange - perhaps you should trade the underlying instruments themselves instead of going via a bookie.
Click to expand...


There are plenty of good reasons to use SB rather than futures. The platforms are only slow because they're designed to be slow, giving the bookies a chance to see how the 'race' is running before the punters.
 
DT said:
Well he is as far as speed is concerned - so essentially you want certain chart trading related features to be available from an SB firm - you'll either need an SB firm to provide the functionality you require or you'll need ninja trader to be modified to work with the API such as you linked... obviously without the dom...
Click to expand...

FWIW, watching the DOM just gives me a headache and is very little or no help in trading.
 
You'd likely be better off finding an SB firm offering the specific features you want or trying to persuade them to offer them - it would seem unlikely at this point that a software package designed for something rather different would be modified for use like this.
 
DT said:
the data doesn't exist in the first place in this instance - you're just trading against a bookie - what would you need ninja trader for?
Click to expand...

There's no doubt you're correct about the DOM and so on as regards spreadbetting, but bid/ask prices can be run through ninjatrader.

Why would you need ninja? Once I'd traded on a ladder (I don't know if anyone else feels the same) I never ever wanted to go back to actually inputting numbers and clicking on tabs for limit or market, and entering more numbers for size and stop and so on. It's clumsy, mistakes can be made too easily, and it's just not practical for daytrading.

I even use the Superdom on ninjatrader for forex, when there's no proper volume etc.

It makes a noticeable difference. Perhaps the difference it makes depends on the style of trading, but it does for me. I have requested IG Index add some sort of ladder for trading, because I don't think it likely they will ever have ninjatrader. I doubt they will ever inplement such a thing, because it helps your trading, and that conflicts with what they want.

So given that some find this useful you can look for spreadbet firms that utilise a ladder, and although I can think of one, it has awful spreads which I wouldn't touch. So it would be useful to some.

And there are other functionalities of ninjatrader which are useful, that I haven't even touched on. So I don't really see where you're coming from suggesting that it's not useful.
 
DT said:
can you not trade from the chart with one of these bucket shops/spread betting firms?

surely you'd be better off trying to get the specific features you want from them than asking for an incompatible software package to be made available - a retail SB firm is likely to be reluctant to supply an API to begin with anyway - putting aside the fact you're not dealing with an actual order book in the first place or standardised contracts...
Click to expand...


ETX apparently let you trade from the Charts.
 
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