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I made the switch from DAS back to thinkorswim (tos) - here are some observations that might be of help to traders who are comparing DAS to thinkorswim SIMULATOR DAS simulator is probably the best realtime sim out there. TOS Papermoney (simulator) - the fills are really bad - it is counter intuitive - you would think that the fills would be super fast because it is a sim - but not. so I quickly switched from TOS sim to TOS live and started trading with a very small number shares - early on in my learning process. HOT KEYS TOS does not have elaborate hot keys like das - I made the switch - I use active trader on TOS like most TOS traders do - check out this video for the limited hotkey setup for TOS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKDoAFafN78 CAMARILLA DAS has built in CAMARILLA pivots You can script CAMARILLA pivots on TOS https://usethinkscript.com/threads/camarilla-pivot-points-day-trading-system-for-thinkorswim.12988/ LEVEL 2 DAS has really good level 2 - you can pay more and expand it to ARCA and IEX TOS level 2 is a joke compared to DAS TIME AND SALES DAS has really good T&S TOS T&S is decent - I have compared with DAS and found that DAS order flow is smoother - but TOS T&S works OK. COST DAS $150 per month min platform fee + the charges from your broker for transactions TOS FREE platform + FREE transaction fees for stocks - if you have a Schwab account - you can create a Schwab account with with very little money options cost $0.65 per contract per transaction FILLS DAS fills are considered superior than tos. TOS fills are decent from my experience - there are studies that show that TOS fills are fast. to me the fills are super fast sometimes and decent most of the time. WORKS ON A MAC DAS windows primarily - can make it work on a Mac with parallels TOS works on Mac, Windows, Linux out of the box CHARTS & TOOLS DAS look and feel of DAS is dated - like a 20 year old windows 95 application - configuring the charts with multiple windows is a struggle and unexpected craziness can happen with your layout. But essential chart studies are available on DAS. Options trading on DAS is available but not as good as the TOS interface. DAS has limited stock scanning capability. TOS excels with charts, layout, chart studies (countless). I was able to replicate all the studies that I had on my DAS charts on TOS - most of them included with the TOS platform - others with a little bit of scripting. Link to Camarilla pivots script above. TOS also has extensive analysis tools, news and fundamentals info. TOS has a very sophisticated stock/options scanning interface with the ability to convert your scans into watchlists that update automatically. Overall, TOS wins.

For those who may be interested: I have successfully transitioned from day-trading stocks to day-trading options @avi style. I ONLY buy calls or puts for day-trading. There are videos from @Megan and @Avi in the bbt education center about this approach and the advantages of day-trading options vs stocks such as lesser capital requirements etc. Thank you @megan and @avi. https://bearbulltraders.com/course/webinars-mentorship/lesson/strategy-2/topic/setup-execution-results-avi/ https://bearbulltraders.com/course/options-webinars-2/lesson/the-power-of-options-for-day-trading-megan-5/ Also, I have made the transition from DAS-TDA to thinkorswim(tos). The main misconception out there is that the FILLS in tos are worse than that of DAS. However after couple of years of DAS-TDA and comparing my experience to tos, I can assertively say that the tos fills are not that bad especially for day-trading options. The main things that are missing from tos is a good Level 2 and scripting like DAS has. If you get Bookmap, the Level2 void can be overcome. Since I am day-trading options, the Active Trader on tos works well and I am not missing the use of scripts.

If you have a problem with DAS not keeping the montage window in focus, resulting in hotkeys not working until you get the window back in focus, create the following hotkey to get focus to the montage window. Use this hotkey before hitting an execution hotkey.

ERROR: Can't get valid price For me, this usually happens when a hotkey or hot button is activated when the MONTAGE window has no focus. You can see if the MONTAGE window has focus - it will have a green border. Solution: click on the MONTAGE window to gain focus (it's border green) before a hotkey or hot button is activated.

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comments from BBT community: Alfredo 3/9/2023 @ 12:48 pm @Paras. It´s possible to have 2 different brokerage accounts in DAS? (IB + TDameritrade). My other question is if you know COBRA trading. Thanks trader0 3/9/2023 @ 12:50 pm @Alfredo Separate DAS apps for TDA, IB $150/mo for each Bandit 1/24/2023 12:21 pm @Paras thanks for inspiring me to move to DAS-TD and taking my coms away!! I trade the open and actually feel like I get better fills than IB, plus I've had shorts on several occasions where IB has not. So thank you:) MomoTrader 3/1/2023 3:13 pm @StephenMeowkmus @Hans I moved from DAS-IB to DAS-TD and am very happy and wish I had done it earlier. At the open, I do find a milli-second delay with DAS-TD, but not significant enough..I am a momentum trader and do quite a bit of scalping at the open..no big complaints. he zero commissions makes it really worth it. NVDA 3/1/2023 @ 3:22 pm @Hans late to this discussion but there are several studies out that show you et better fills with TD than IB. MomoTrader 3/1/2023 @ 3:33 pm @MasterChief https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4189239 MomoTrader 3/1/2023 @ 3:34 pm @Hans not arrguing against your experience..I myself felt a milli-second delay in fills with DAS-TD (vs IB), but seems the fill price seems to be better with TD per those studies.. MomoTrader 3/1/2023 @ 3:36 pm @Peter_laptop ...just to clarify, DAS is not DIRECT ACCESS Trading with IB & TD..Only Direct routing. They are Direct access with market only with native brokerrs using their API Hans Contributor 3/1/2023 @ 3:36 pm @Peter they were just showing that studies have shown that TD is better fills than IB. nobody was pushing one or the other, I have both Shelley 3/1/2023 @ 3:37 pm TD customer service is excellent. I was not impressed with IB's customer service. David76 3/2/2023 @ 11:27 am I don't think I understand how DAS is calculating trades. At the start of the morning I will position into 4 stock, but will has between 6 and 8 tickets. MomoTrader 3/2/2023 @ 11:30 am @David76 every transaction is counted as a ticket ..like if you short 500 shares and broker breaks it to two 250 share lots, thats two tickets... MomoTrader 3/2/2023 @ 11:31 am @David76 IB was notorious for such splits..and charged commission for every ticket..not seeing that too much with TD Lori S 3/3/2023 @ 3:18 pm DAS is $120 and then the data for TDA was going to be another $150 - I thought trader0 3/3/2023 @ 3:19 pm @Lori S No I have DAS-TDA - switched from DAS-IB - same cost for both trader0 3/3/2023 @ 3:18 pm @Lori S makes sense - DAS is $150 /mo for DAS-TDA and DAS-IB with TotalView, ARCA Lori S 3/3/2023 @ 3:19 pm ok so I would have the same cost, just less commissions... trader0 3/3/2023 @ 3:19 pm @Lori S yes DarkMoon 3/17/2023 @ 11:45 am I paid for both DAS-TD and DAS-IBKR for a month and ran some stats...after comms, TDA won out. Hans Contributor 3/17/2023 @ 11:39 am I strongly suggest using TD w/Das instead of IB. the fills are good now and the comm's savings is a life saver while you learn Hans Contributor 3/17/2023 @ 11:47 am @John I've had both and there is sometimes a slight delay getting filled on TD with das. There are independent tests that show better fills on TD but I don't think they are taking the delay into consideration. Your strategy many times requires very fast fills. Maybe TD isn't the best fit for you. But why not spend $150.00 on a month of Das with TD and see for yourself. If I had started with Das TD, I would have saved thousands in comms Hans Contributor 3/17/2023 @ 11:53 am @John_H a couple traders here in chat were insistent that I was wrong about TD Das because independent tests have shown best market order fills with TD. I traded them side by side and sometimes Das Td is delayed, its that simple bv 3/17/2023 @ 11:41 am TD ameritrade is not available to Canadians but TD investing is trader0 4/27/2023 @ 1:52 pm @Jamie @Korey DAS-TD - in my case it took 1 day to get marked as PDT (with number of trades that exceeded the limit) and 2 days to get the 4x margin on day and 2x on overnight - automatically trader0 4/27/2023 @ 2:02 pm https://dastrader.com/docs/supported-functions-by-das-ib-and-td-ameritrade/ here it says - ^TD acknowledgement is above a microsecond delay and so some hotkey orders may get rejected. The microsecond delay is not a problem for me even when trading ORBs

Hello - Here's a link to the BBT scanner that you can access from your Trade Ideas account https://bearbulltraders.com/download-trade-ideas-scanner/ I have the logic from an old doc for the BBT Trade Ideas gap up/down scanner logic - attaching here. If you have an account with Trade Ideas (I don't), please post a screen shot of the latest logic for the BBT Trade Ideas gap up/down scanner. Appreciate your help!

Hey @Nperez13 >>>>> Reversals and ABCs; Since you have more time to determine proper risk, You hit the nail right on the head ! Thanks

Hey @Nperez13 I have tried various techniques. My latest approach is using BUYING POWER and buttons like below. I am liking this so far. I am a momentum trader mostly - so I have to make quick decisions and all the risk/reward calculations etc was too much to handle. Not many people are going to like my approach I guess you have find your own technique. B 200 -> buy 200 shares B .20 BP -> buy 20% of buying power S SL 25c - > (set for shorts) stop loss 25c above the price S SL $150 -> (set for shorts) stop loss to fixed $150 total above the price based on the total price and quantity of of the shares I guess you will be able to figure out the rest.

Hey @Courtney Watkins Is AWS still your preferred method? Yes T3a Medium? Yes I set up this vm on aws in march 2020 and haven't changed it. Works great for me - I use just one screen setup. Also the vm hardly fails and I get a ~ 10 ms (whenever I checked) latency - which is awesome. Drawbacks: Costs about $15/ month or so - don't have an exact number because I have other services running on my account. Multiple screen support is almost impossible to setup. Overall - if you are going pro - you will eventually need multiple screens. So you have think if this is the way you want to go.

Hey @smp Please post the instructions to update the DAS fonts - Thank you

I am seeing ghost trades in my sim account - second or third time this has happened to me Below is the relevant portion of my chat with the DAS support DAS has not come back with an answer. Has this happened to anybody? ----------------------------------- Customer ServiceCustomer Service9:58 AM I am seeing a buy order at that time, entering you in position for AAL KRIS9:59 AM the one i am seeing in the history at 9.31.54 with a loss of -236.44 is me covering it i did not do a short sell before that - it magically appeared KRIS10:05 AM this has happened to me a couple of times - i thought at that time that it was me pressing the wrong key or something - did not check the history at that time today I checked the history and found the gap Customer ServiceCustomer Service10:06 AM One moment Customer ServiceCustomer Service10:12 AM So that buy order was covering a short that you did not enter KRIS10:12 AM yes Customer ServiceCustomer Service10:12 AM Did you log in and make any trades over the weekend? KRIS10:12 AM not at all KRIS10:17 AM actually Thursday was the last day of trading - i skipped trading on friday Customer ServiceCustomer Service10:17 AM I would like to see the trade log from thurday Customer ServiceCustomer Service10:37 AM We would then a have to escalate the issue to our support team, please to have Thursday's file emailed to [email protected] clarifying that you were in a short position of AAL unknowingly and would like clarity on how it was created -----------------------------------

@smp Yes - please post the instructions. My das windows suddenly got messed up - the font sizes changed on the buttons (level 2) and the chart price labels. Would not revert to its original sizes even after restoring from a whole das backup. I am guessing that this must be related to the font info DAS writes to the windows registry. You are right - DAS could use better fonts and visual styles - the application is stuck in the Windows 95 look and feel.. Appreciate your help. Thank you.

@IamKarthi - Thank you for sharing details about your trading journey. You have definitely enriched the BBT Community with your postings. Looking forward to hearing more from you. I am especially impressed with your selection of trading related books - I bought all of them