I actually used abacus in elementary school, it was part of curriculum. When I started to work (15 years ago), there were co-workers in the same office still using it.
Easy way to rid yourself of those who consistently post meaningless crap. IGNORE button. Works fine for me. -momo
I know of a couple who are trading tens of millions anyway using TS4 and 2000, with 30+ month track records. They are not using autoexecution, I agree, which is what I believe the point you are making, Brandon. I am working on creating a simplified example of an automated trading system using InteractiveBrokers, Tradestation, and a free .DLL from Robert Linders on the Omega List. Once I've got it documented, I'll post a link. Hopefully, others can use this to create and adapt it to their own systems.
Our software will trade multiple systems 100% hands free. I have seen many mechanical systems that have been consistantly making money. As BrandonF said, multiple systems will smooth your equity curve and reduce drawdowns.