I used TS for a couple of years, switched to MC nearly three years ago, and haven't looked back. As for "advanced features," well, here's a quick sample ... -- MC offers sub-one minute charts, TS doesn't. -- TS has a 50 symbol/chart limit, MC doesn't. -- MC calculates constant volume bars correctly, TS doesn't. -- MC works with 20+ different data feeds, TS doesn't. -- MC is a hyperthreaded platform, able to utilize all available cores at all times for all processes. TS's hyperthreading works only for its optimization protocol (which is, risibly unsophisticated compare to MC's); for charts and studies and live data, on the other hand, TS loads it all on one core. -- MC's customer service is, in my experience, extraordinary. My experience with TS' customer service was ... well, different.
I am not going to get into a pissing contest with strangers in a internet chat board. I very clearly explained why TS is a superior solution to MC, but I don't expect to convince everyone. Make your choice. After all, if everyone was rational, how am I ever going to make any money trading? I have nothing more to add to this discussion and this is my last post on this topic.
Heavens, I don't mean to turn this into a pissing contest. I'd just like to know why TS is a "superior" solution. The assertion baffles me as I considered myself pretty familiar with the TS platform at the time I was using it. So if I've missed something here, I'd really like to know!
Thanks for the info you guys shared in this thread. I have been using TradeStation for about 2 years and I like it. There are features that I wish TS would provide but doesn't (yet). For example, I can develop an indicator to display some texts on my charts. But I cannot set the text font, size, color. It can only take the "default" text properties. I found that kind of limiting. The reason that I kept using it is because of cost. I can do enough trading (5000 shares a month) to justify having TS for free basically. With MultiCharts, I would need to buy it plus getting a data vendor. (I suppose I can open an IB account to get the feed.). But I am willing to give MC a try and see what it offers. I am signing up for the 30 day trial and see...
The cost is the biggest thing. My 30 day trial is almost up, but I think multicharts was invaluable. Once my trading income hits a certain point, I will start leasing MC. For now, it's very easy to trade with TS and hit the 5000 share mark, so I'm sticking with it.
Great list tortoise and you nailed the major differences for professional users. Tradestation's John Roberts summed it up nicely. His response to a large corporate client to devote a single programmer one week of time to fix Tradestation's inability to plot Constant Volume Bars correctly was that his program didn't need to do everything perfectly. Pretty much sums up the reason I would never use it. I love it when a company is so clear about it's attention to detail.
Well, to be fair, that was just bad PR on John Roberts' part. The reality is that with software, there are never enough features and that there's always a list of items that have to be addressed in terms of priority. We have no idea how much %'age of revenue that one corporate client was for constant volume bars to be a serious priority for TS. We have no idea what their priorities are, although it's telling that they haven't been successful going forward because their platform is lacking a lot of functionality other competitors provide. I'm hesitant to write the platform off entirely, though. They're open enough with their interface that I've been using it mostly without issue for some time.
Since 2007, after Roberts was hired, they have had over 200 requests to fix the constant volume bars. Nah . . . no need to fix something so worthless from so few clients.