Yes, TS has been around a long time... I've used it for years!!

However, TODAY... I NO LONGER USE IT!

BUT, in a fast market... when you NEED IT THE MOST... IT WILL FAIL YOU!! PERIOD!! It boggs down, locks up with an explosion of tick data... AND, you will have tremendous slippage on stops!!

I would CHART with it... but never again use it for ORDER EXECUTION!! (besides TS Securities, IS THE WORST!!)

Just charts... it's great. Orders & trade management... IT SUCKS!!

Good luck, if you decide to go this route!

1) The biggest drawback is the lack of portfolio level testing. 2) Not multithreaded, everything seems to execute off of one loop. You get no benefit from all your extra cores. 3) No easy way to programmatically add tons of windows/charts with pre-populated parameters for the studies. 4) Sometimes (rarely) the signals don't execute right, and I find myself having to figure out why a trade went off when it shouldn't have, and this is using some of the canned strats/indicators they have 5) Not having a FIX API and alternative interface to the core platform makes it difficult to take trading to the next level beyond just EasyLanguage. I can write C++-based DLLs for their trading engine, but the interface is clunky. 6) I don't think there is a way to use it from multiple computers. So, even while it's multi-threaded, there's no easy way to, say, launch multiple instances so you can do research in one window while your trades are running in another window. 7) No way to access the back-testing engine or performance reports in any automated fashion. Doing research with this platform is very clunky and requires a lot of manual effort. 8) The macro system is awkward 9) Hot-keying is not as good as Anvil or Genesis LASER; very clunky manual order interface for discretionary trades, or corrective trades for when your system goes wonky 10) Commissions could be better 11) Their intelligent routing can leave you hanging sometimes, even as price goes through a limit order.

I understand they (TS) have to balance ease of use with features and development resources; however, the appeal of TradeStation is that you get a lot of stuff right away that would take a long time to code yourself. The drawback here, though, is that there's no elegant upgrade path to doing more sophisticated things while staying with them as a brokerage.

People I have talked to do all kinds of crazy things like plug in DLLs to put orders out on other brokers, or they have to use automated-click programs to extract data. I just don't see the need for all of this, when TS could easily throw out beta apps and unsupported options just to get some of its more advanced users a little more flexibility.

I will be pulling the plug soon, i am not happy with the fees/service and the fact that data is inconsistent. Also the fact that I am a discretionary trader than a system trader makes it of little value

I would like to abandon it, maybe in favor of Multicharts.