Trading platforms in 2027: what I would recommend differently today

In February, my platform comparison told you to start with ATAS and add Bookmap for short timeframes. Today my answer is shorter: start with ATAS and see whether you miss anything.

The reason is the heatmap in ATAS. It got good enough this year that I no longer think most traders need a second program. Bookmap is still worth it in two cases, which I cover further down.

Risk Warning: Trading futures and other financial instruments carries significant risk of loss. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Only trade with capital you can afford to lose.

What changed at ATAS

The split used to be simple. You read Footprints, Volume Profile and Big Trades in ATAS and opened Bookmap for the heatmap. So you had two programs running and paid for two subscriptions.

ATAS now has its own heatmap module, and it keeps adding to it. It added automatic history recording in May, indicators like CVD in the summer, and trackers for Icebergs, Stops and Sweeps in September. Those trackers need MBO data through Rithmic. The heatmap comes with every plan, although ATAS still calls it beta.

I can drag the heatmap around and zoom in quickly, so I open Bookmap less and less.

Do you still need Bookmap?

Not to start with. If learning to read the heatmap is your main goal, Bookmap is still a good choice, and I still show it in our webinars. It does two things better than ATAS for me.

The first is history. Open Bookmap in the middle of the day and it fills in the hours before. For futures that is up to 72 hours through BookmapData and 24 through dxFeed. Through Rithmic, one hour is free and 24 cost extra. The ATAS heatmap can't do that yet. If you often join mid-session and want to see where the liquidity was before you got there, that's a good reason to use Bookmap.

The second is bubbles. When lots of small orders go through, Bookmap merges them into one bubble more cleanly to my eye.

So if you already have ATAS, try its heatmap first. If you miss something after that, get Bookmap. And if you look almost only at the heatmap and don't get much from Footprints, go ahead and start with Bookmap.

Which ATAS plan you need

The two cheap plans won't do. START and PLUS show futures with a 15-minute delay, and you can't trade on that. Real-time data starts at PRO.

Classic ATAS runs on Windows only. On a Mac you use ATAS X, which runs natively without Parallels. ATAS still officially calls X a beta. If you use add-on indicators, test them before you switch. Most also run in X, except ones with Windows-specific interfaces.

Options data on the chart

Since October, ATAS has been showing options data and GEX on the chart with Options X-Ray, for ES, MES, SPY and US 500. That is only in the ULTRA plan. PRO gets the Options Chain Suite with a GEX profile, but it needs a connection to Rithmic or Interactive Brokers.

It may save you a separate service. Just don't build your trading around it. The GEX heatmap doesn't show you direction, as ATAS says itself. You only see where price may move sluggishly and where it may move fast. Whether you buy or sell there still comes from reading the order flow.

If an indicator is missing, build it

You can write your own indicators in ATAS, and many people overlook that. ATAS documents it with a guide and sample projects. You used to need to know how to program. Today you describe to an AI what the indicator should do and quickly have a first draft.

The best example is Tradeways, our partner for a fully automatic trading journal. You install the Tradeways indicator in ATAS, and from then on every trade at supported brokers lands in your journal by itself, with all its fills and chart screenshots of the entry and exit.

NinjaTrader, Sierra Chart, Quantower and TradingView

The feed connection in NinjaTrader runs stably for me, and drawing a Volume Profile over a specific range is quick. I still don't like the Footprints. You get Order Flow+ with the Lifetime plan or a funded live account.

Sierra Chart is cheap and can do a lot, but setting it up takes you far more time than ATAS.

Quantower has a free version, and volume analysis and the heatmap cost extra.

We use TradingView for overview and preparation. For volume analysis it is pointless to me, even with Volume Footprint. By default it calculates from aggregated intrabar data, and those are not real individual trades. So I only look at volume and Footprints in ATAS.

What it costs per month

These are November 2026 prices, excluding VAT for ATAS. Add a data feed and usually exchange fees.

Get your real-time data through your own broker or data vendor rather than your prop firm. That way your setup doesn't depend on one company. Test both Rithmic and CQG as well, because which feed runs more stably depends on where you are. Near Frankfurt, for me, it was CQG.

What I would start with in 2027

I would start with ATAS PRO. Take ULTRA if you want options data on the chart, and Bookmap if the heatmap is your main tool or you need the history. TradingView is enough for preparation. Sierra Chart makes sense if you want to spend little and enjoy configuring things.

Decide by which data you look at when you trade. I work with Footprints a lot, and others get on better with Big Trades and bubbles. Both work.

No platform replaces your risk management. In our mentoring we show you how to read order flow in practice.