Investor/RT is a great tool. I have been trading since day one when the internet and online trading was in it's infancy. I have had several charting programs and do not find any so complete as I/RT. There customer service is incredible......we are spoiled over at I/RT. The versatility of the numerous indicators, scans, and special studies place I/RT at the top. Yes, even better than Tradestation! The open architecture that I/RT has.... allows you as the user, unlimited possibilities. Anything new requires adjustment. Yes, us traders get rather comfortable and "set -in- our- way's". Just give I/RT a chance and when you get used to it, which is not hard at all, you will love it. Then with hindsight you will wonder how you did without it....kinda like lookin'at the charts, hindsight tells all There are many successfull Traders using I/RT. It is not new to the trading world...they have been around for years. If you trade options....stocks...or futures and are serious, you must try their program. Ok, I am sorry...I sound like a salesman...but I am not connected with I/RT and do not get any other concessions from them. I gladly pay for the program..... and do not tell them....but I would pay double!!!! Michael
IRT is great as eod program, but for intraday charting of more than one instrument it is very buggy, when used with qfeed and intraday stuff. I have mixed feelings about the program: it has too many good features to ditch it, but the interface requires a lot of getting used to. There is however NO OTHER program that I know of that scans faster for setups. Also it imports 10000 stocks of eod data within 60 seconds. It is loaded on features -scans, backtesting, lots of indicators, custom indicators, anything you might need - and the price is not too bad. Its biggest problem is the frequent crashes (sometimes as much as 5 per day), but sometimes days go by without a crash. Besides the fact it is pretty annoying, there is also the problem that often the database is damaged. It does automatically back up, but still, you usually miss a lot of data. Nowadays I use it in conjunction with qcharts. I use the intraday alarms - set automatically by IRT through a scheduled scan - in IRT. Also for EOD charting and EOD pattern scans. I use qcharts for intraday and daily charts. This combination is good enough to give me what I need. But I keep thinking what great program it could be if they would issue a stop for new features for a while and fully concentrate on rebuilding the interface (Qcharts still has the best interface. Simple, intuitive and very ingenious) and ironing out all the bugs so that it would be as stable as Qcharts.
I initially got into IRT because it was the only professional level analysis software that is available in a version native to Mac OS X, a huge advantage, right off the bat, IMHO. .....After some initial struggles with it, I must say I have come to really love the program. I traded for a while with a couple of friends who use Cyber, and found I could easily set up IRT to do many things they could not do at all...(displaying "times avg. vol. in the quote pages, for example). I find something new and interesting every time I use the program, and also have learned to take advantage of the scans, which although a bit intimidating at first, I have found to be very flexible and useful. I am in the process of adapting my trading style from playing breakouts to something more suitable to current market conditions.....IRT is a fluid enough program that it has adapted to my current style with no problem. In a nutshell, IRT is a terrific and extreamly deep program with a lot to offer. I would have to say that it is not the most intuitive program I have ever used; but if one is willing to invest a little time in using IRT, I think they will find it time well spent in this platform. Best- Schnorgie
Hi to all that read, Just received a link to these posts. I'm here (to waste a few mins. ;-) ) to give my opinion on IRT as a user and trader. I've used IRT for 1 1/2 yrs + now. Also, I am a daytrader based strictly on visuals... in other words, I trade strictly from a chart using various technicals. I agree, there is a good amount that could be better with IRT... but, there is also an awful lot that is already good about IRT. One important issue to keep mind of, is that it has some great people backing up support! I use to be involved in design using a cad/cam package ($30K) that was not that intuitive either. Most top-notch... thorough type softwares tend to be that way. There were plenty of times I had folks look over my shoulder and ask what the h*LL I was doing or how the h*LL I was doing it (it did not have a very attractive GUI). But if one could master the tool so to speak, it was very clear that there was very little that existed that could perform the task as well or with as many different approaches. I'm not here to give a bunch of details regarding IRT (unless requested); but I will say that if it weren't for its openness or flexibility to user creation I would not have a daytrading system today that I am wholly confident in every time I put my money on the table!
Interesting... 4 or 5 new folks suddenly show up here to say Investor/RT is not so bad after all. Oh well.. to each his/her own. JimS.. I too spent years as a beta tester and unpaid QA for Autodesk, Solidworks, and Pro Engineer. I was supposed to just be a user, but spent a monumental amount of time untangling the software so I could get something useful done. That is probably why I am so unforgiving of software that does not work as it should.
Tony, nothing too mysterious about people showing up here.. IRT has an active yahoo forum and this thread was mentioned.. feedback from users is what I thought you wanted. And I am yet myself to encounter a software platform that works exactly as per advertised! I also find IRT pretty good, using an esignal feed appears way better than when I trialed it once before with a qcharts feed. As to any bias you can search ex posts of mine and see I have been trying the last year to find a charting prog that suits me and my style of trading.. so far IRT has proven the best.. most versatile and stable.. a few complaints but as others have mentioned at least the tech support is responsive and tries to improve any faults. I think many progs have differnt qualities and faults.. and to an extent it depends upon what you are trying to do with them.. some work fine on one thing and less well on another.. each to ones own I guess Neil