Design you own stand alone programs and you won't need Tradestation. I used TS many years when you use to buy it, but if it can't do Automation, it is a dinosaur. Tradestation and I parted ways when you couldn't load enough data and be able to switch contracts by itself, but it is ok for the retail trader. What happens when you get the flu, you there fighting sleep and keep trading? I wish you years of good health, my bad health helped me think it was time for automation, other years to do with one's life than sit/stand in front of screens, I look at it as my in the bank, why stare at it making 1%. I do have couple gals who been with me twenty years watching everything, their 401k is at risk if they don't, so they watching their money.
To each his own. I have been with TradeStation since version 3 or 4? It does the job - the way I want to do it.
I knew someone always in perfect health...never missed a day of trading if the markets were open. He gets married, has a kid and then the kid gets very sick one night around 2 years old. Him and his wife up all night until the fever breaks. He still came to work the following morning even though he had accumulated about 30 day pay sick days. He looks like a zombie...eyes puffy red as if he hadn't sleep in weeks. The guy dozes off to sleep at his desk and precedes to miss a big move in the market. He decides to shake off the sleepiness via going outside to get some fresh air and get some coffee from Starbucks across the street. Wasn't paying attention although its the same walk he takes every day after work, walks into the street at a spot that's not a pedestrian crosswalk...forgets to look both ways like he normally does and gets hit by a car...breaks his hip and leg. He then missed a few months of work. Everybody has a day off from trading here and there...life is not perfect. Big trading days I've missed have been due to snow storms (roads closed), flood, sickness, kids sporting events, kids entrance exam days, ISP down, vacation, broker platform problems, construction repairs on the house, attending funeral, birth of my kids, electrical outage due to an electrical storm, tornado, many other things that included evacuation of the neighborhood for an entire day because of a gas leak caused by some idiot down the street. A buddy of mine currently has missed an entire month of trading...jury duty. Next month I need to take the morning off from trading to renew my drivers license (I wish these government offices were open on the weekends)...may schedule a dental cleaning the same day...I'm due for one (dentists aren't open on the weekends too).
I remember once canceling out a dental appointment cause some report was coming out the next day and I wanted to trade it, was one of the biggest losing days of my life at the time. It was the last time I canceled an appointment, although it might sound foolish, but I think times am away from watching the screen for various reasons before were times I avoided possible bad days, but any day can be a bad day. It is great to take days off just because.
%% That's much more important than momentum , which tends to get out of a trend waaaaay to early; and original poster needs to put some numbers on his charts, +one year chart is much more helpful than a '' SMALL snapshot in the dark, chart''
Does speed of market/momentum actually matter? Yes! Momo is very important thing to lean all you can about for both day and swing traders. Next to volume, momo is the most important tool used by seasoned traders that trade with TA.
For futures volume is not as important - for equities it is extremely important - it is the only thing out there that leads price.
I could care less about any theory - yours or anyone else's. But I know what works and fibs are one piece of the puzzle - to me.