OpenTick data for Ninjatrader or any other chart package---comments requested

[Tasuki]

Well, I'm still hunting for a decent data source for Ninjatrader charts. My Tradestation idea went bust because TS would charge me twice---once for the copy of TS that I run on my main computer, and once for running Ninja with TS data on another computer.

So, my latest idea is OpenTick. Their website says that they provide FREE data--this quote is from their homepage (www.opentick.com):

"free real-time and historical market data for trading systems and trading platforms.* over ten terabytes of historical tick data for free."

However, a different page (this one: http://www.opentick.com/index.php?ap...nt=market_data) shows that they charge for CME data, which is what I'd need.

Still, CME emini data for $15/month is reasonable, I think. Depends on at least two factors:
1) whether it's reliable (good ticks, non-crashing)
2) whether the $15 includes back data

On another thread of TradersLab (found here: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/for...-and-3042.html permalink #2 of that thread), Sparrow has kindly critiqued OpenTick, and given it I gather fairly low marks.

The purpose of this thread is to ask whether anyone on TradersLab has used OpenTick for Ninjatrader, or used OpenTick for anything at all. Feedback of all types will be gratefully received.

I will post a similar message on the Ninjatrader support page, but I wanted to get feedback from the folks I can trust, our own Traderslab community. And hey, if it turns out that OpenTick is a viable way to get reliable data for cheap, and Ninjatrader has charts that are free, this might be a truely winning combination.

Thanks, Taz

[OAC]

I only had it for less than a week and I use it to run Ensign. There is a problem already. The symbol ES #F is supposed to give me the nearest month ES contract. I still get Dec contract coming in as new data, but when I refresh, I get march contract and leave a nice gap on my chart

[OAC]

One good thing though. With the Opentick and Ensign combination, I am able to display $VOLD (used in E-Signal), which is $UVOL minus $DVOL on NYSE. Opentick has both $UVOL and $DVOL and Ensign can calculate a spread between the two. Not sure if NinjaTrader can do that ?

[zoltran]

OpenTick itself is free. Just like it says.

However, the Exchanges require them to collect exchange fees. Just like they do for Esignal, DTN or other provider. OpenTick doesn't keep that money.

You only need to pay the exchange fees for Real Time Streaming data.
You can use Opentick for free if all you want is backfill/historical or delayed R/T data.

Having said that ... You get what you pay for.
- It's un-filtered. So all bad ticks from the exchange pass thru. This goes for the R/T stream, and historical data.
- There is no customer support. Forum entries, or Help Tickets will go days without answer .. if ever.
- They have had some reliability issues .. which appear to be fixed.

I used them for many months as a backfill/historical data.
I use InteractiveBrokers as my Real/Time feed, and a 2nd connection to OpenTick to retrieve any historical data.
This works ok... The IB feed is very low cost way to receive a R/T stream for many instruments, and using OpenTIck to fill any historical gaps is a great bonus. I have several friends doing this now. However, OpenTick can be quite slow for backfill and there are data quality issues from time to time.

I Also tried Opentick as my primary R/T feed for a while. It was a good fast feed. But I went back to IB just to avoid paying the exchange fees.

The biggest problem I had was that the feed is totally un-filtered, and there are no data-quality people on staff to correct problems. If the exchange send garbage .. you get garbage. Like when Globex starts up on the weekend for a test with back-dated / garbage data..... and you left NT running. You get all the garbage data .. and there's no way to get rid of it.

NT cant' fix it .. as it's bad from the source.

Esig and IQFeed and the others also have data quality problems from tme to time. Except .. they can and do fix this type of problem.
I now use IQFeed.

Hope this helps.

[Tasuki]

Thanks OAC, zoltran,
I've never been able to figure out how much "massaging" of the data goes on by data providers to get rid of bad ticks. I gather from what you've said, however, that it is extensive.

My hope was to use Ninjatrader to get the magnificent Market Profile plug-in that you can buy for it. It's pricey ($230) but it's so wildly superior to anything native to Tradestation or created for Tradestation that I'd really like to have it on my charts. However, it looks like the OpenTick idea is also a bust.
I wonder how much a market profile would be thrown off by bad ticks. Hmmmm.

Anyway, thanks again. I guess the search continues.
Taz

[zoltran]

Taz

Many use their brokers feed.
IB , zenfire etc

Is that an option?

Or buy a real feed like esignal or iqfeed.

[slableak]

Tasuki,

I also am looking for a data provider for NT. Let me know what you decide to do.

thanks,
David

[drago1]

I strongly recommend Zenfire with Ninjatrader. I used OPENTICK for eminis with another software and there were many gaps in the data.

[brownsfan019]

DTN data will work as well with Ninja.

[LS_Chad]

Investor/RT supports opentick, and provides an option to use DTN Market Access for historical data backfill ($12/mo extra). This gives users a way to quickly clean up any bad live ticks from opentick with a quick backfill from DTN (backfills right up to the second requested). Realtime comes from opentick.....backfill gets routed to DTN.