Video Transcript:
Hey everyone, it’s Dale here. Before you even get started with trading order flow, you need two things: a trading platform that supports order flow software, and data. In this video, I’m going to show you the most popular order flow trading platforms and the data you need for the symbols you want to trade. As a bonus, I’ll also show you a little trick on how you can get very, very cheap order flow data. All right, let’s get started.
Here’s a table with popular order flow platforms. First, there’s the NinjaTrader platform. It has the largest retail community and many footprint or volume delta add-ons. It’s a little more complex to set up, but nothing to worry about too much. There are two versions of NinjaTrader: one is free, and one costs $99 per month. I actually use the free version. The paid version allows you to trade directly through NinjaTrader and also gives access to their order flow, volume profile, and VWAP indicators. However, since I have my own indicators for order flow, volume profile, VWAP, and others, I don’t need to use theirs. I also prefer to trade through my broker, which is IC Markets, and use their platform, CTrader. If you want to trade with NinjaTrader, you’re basically limited to the brokers they support. So, I use the free version of NinjaTrader, my own indicators, and trade through my broker’s platform. This way, you can use NinjaTrader for free without other limitations, which I think is perfect.
The next one is Sierra Chart. This is also a rather popular platform, but I must say it’s a bit outdated, so I’m not really into it. It’s also harder to configure. The upside, however, is that they have really good, unfiltered historical data. This is definitely a reason to use Sierra Chart. The cost is not bad—$36 per month—but if I had to choose between Sierra Chart and NinjaTrader, I would always pick NinjaTrader.
Next is ATAS, which stands for Advanced Trading Analytical Software. It’s limited to futures, crypto, and stocks. It’s quite user-friendly and built specifically for order flow. The cost is $85 per month.
Then there’s Quantower. It has a smaller community, which means fewer tutorials, but it’s quite modern and has strong footprint and delta tools. This one is also a good option. It costs $70 per month.
The one I’ve listed here but wouldn’t really recommend is TradingView. I included it because it’s very popular, but the problem is that it lacks full data. It’s a rather simple platform for retail traders and not really specialized in order flow, VWAP, or volume profile like the others. You’ve probably tried it—it’s easy to use and very intuitive. It didn’t include order flow in the past, but now it does. I must say, though, I’m not a huge fan of their order flow. If you already have TradingView and one of their higher-tier plans, you can give it a try. The cost is about $70 per month for the premium plan, where order flow is included. In the cheaper plans, order flow is not included.
Now, you need both a platform and data, so let’s talk about the data. For intraday trading with order flow, you need precise data, and you’ll want CME data. There are a few exchanges, and you can choose based on what you want to trade.
There’s the CME Exchange, where you’ll get data for the ES (futures for the S&P 500), NASDAQ, Russell, currency futures, and interest rates. The cost is roughly $12 per month. Then there’s CBOT, where you’ll get data for the Dow, 30-year bonds, 10-year treasury notes, corn, soybeans, and wheat—also $12 per month. Next is COMEX, which provides data for gold, silver, and copper futures, again $12 per month. Finally, NYMEX gives data for crude oil and natural gas futures, also $12 per month. If you want data for all of them together, you can get it for roughly $30 to $40 per month.
Now, here’s a little trick to get all the CME data for just $4 per month. First, open an account with NinjaTrader and fill out the required details. Second, fund your account—there’s no minimum balance, so you can deposit, for example, $100. Third, once you’ve done the first two steps, you can purchase CME data for just $4 per month. The only thing to remember is that you must place at least one trade per month to keep your account active. The trade volume doesn’t matter—it can be the smallest order possible. As long as you do that, your account remains active, and you’ll continue to get CME data for $4 per month.
I’ve made a detailed, step-by-step video about this process. There’s a link here, and I’ll also drop it in the video description so you can follow along. It will walk you through the entire process so you can get the data for just $4 per month. That’s what I do.
Here’s a quick summary of what I recommend. I suggest using the NinjaTrader 8 platform with the free version. I recommend using the CME data for $4 per month. Regarding trading instruments, my personal preference is trading currency futures and the ES. I recommend starting with those, but if you’re not into currency futures or the ES, you can trade whatever you prefer. That’s just what I personally like and trade myself.
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