V. 22:7 (92-95): Product Review: PhotonTrader by David Penn

Product Review: PhotonTrader by David Penn

If a picture tells a thousand words, then perhaps this review of PhotonTrader, a futures order-entry platform developed by FuturePath Trading, should have been composed as a PowerPoint presentation instead of a Word document.

Why so? Because the best way to understand what PhotonTrader does and how well it does it (short of the sort of hand-guided tour I got from PhotonTrader’s excellent technical support staff — more about that later) is to learn how all of its parts, or modules, work independently and how each contributes to the whole. PhotonTrader is a constellation of easy-to-understand, can’t-fail-if-you-try modules that provide a variety of ways for active futures traders to put orders in the market, monitor and modify positions, and watch and respond directly to the market. It also provides an “e-paper trail” in the form of an executed orders window, audit trail, and position report.

I stumbled across PhotonTrader while reading about the preferred tools of a technical analyst (and Market Wizard) whose work as a trader and trading educator has impressed me for some time. Without putting that analyst on the spot with an endorsement he (or she) might not elect to make, I recall that this technical analyst’s website notes not only a “particular fond[ness]” for PhotonTrader, but also the observation that “Photon has a number of highly useful features for the active emini trader.”