TWS or DAS Trader Pro

[ranjeevmahtani 0]

I'm new to day trading and the BBT community, and I'm just getting DAS Trader Pro set up on my Mac via parallels. @Carlos M., I saw a video you just made about setting up TWS, and I was wondering if you find it to be a good tool to use for day trading, or if you think DAS is still preferable and why? TWS runs natively on Mac (whereas DAS needs parallels and a VM), and it's easier on the eyes, but if things like speed, fills, functionality and stability/reliability go in favor of DAS, then the tradeoffs are more than acceptable. Curious for people's experience and thoughts here.

[Martin D 27]

Hi, most people here use DAS, including Carlos (I used to but don't anymore). If I was choosing one or the other then I'd choose DAS but Bookmap complicated matters for me.

It depends what kind of trading you're doing, if you're a scalper like Andrew then DAS is better. The executions are better so those split seconds count as you're entering at the point of the market where you often expect it to go immediately. This is what DAS is going for, quick executions. IMO the executions in TWS are fine if you're looking for more point to point moves but aren't as quick as DAS.

In terms of charting TWS is missing some features that DAS has that people here use such as highlighting bigger orders on Level 2. However, this isn't a strength of DAS either vs other providers (as I mentioned their focus is execution speed) for example things like volume profile is incorrect in DAS because they use a less data intensive method for the benefit of speed rather than do it accurately (I asked them to do it properly but they refused and said they don't intend to fix it). Therefore depending on what you're using you may be fine or you may have issues with charting (with both) which is obviously a difficult question to answer for a newer trader.

DAS has replay which is also helpful for a new trader but BBT now has a free replay on trading terminal so it's not as big an issue now vs when I started. DAS hotkeys are more customizable, things like fixed risk hotkeys are missing in TWS.

So DAS has the edge throughout but the reason I went to TWS from DAS is Bookmap, imo it helps tremendously read Time & Sales and Level 2 and my decisions as a result are much quicker (far outweighing the benefit of DAS execution speed for me, also should point out DAS was around 200-250ms delay for me vs I think 50-100ms for some NA traders because I'm based in Australia), many members here use bookmap. It's lacking education content in BBT at the moment (but I believe is coming) because Thor is the only mod who uses it and has just started. I'm using bookmap to chart in the shorter timeframe and make decisions. DAS therefore became a $200 a month (stocks and futures) platform just for execution and I don't see the value for the type of trading I do (not scalping). I only use TWS for a little bit of charting and execution really, I won't necessarily continue executing in TWS as it doesn't give me everything I want but doubt it would be DAS either.

As I said most people here use DAS so I will say my opinion isn't the consensus opinion.