Dave, I appreciate the response to my questions. Since I use IB as my main broker, I think TS would be a good choice since I could use them as my backup broker and maintain some cash in that account for that purpose. Then the monthly fee would only be the $99/month. I would not need my eSignal anymore with this setup also. Leaning towards TS...
Dear Bob, It seems you are getting wonderful answers to your qeustions. I've included a few answers here as well. As far as advancements in the software side of it, TradeStation Technologies is constantly working on new upgrades. It's wonderful to see that other companies are finally starting to give more merit to backtesting and technical analysis. This has been the foundation of TradeStation for years. TradeStation has long been considered the 'industry standard' for backtesting. We were one of the first to develop a computer language specifically designed for traders, which we call Easy Language. It allows you to actually use words to describe your trading strategy to the program....(words like open, high, low, close, today etc...) The program does not limit you to how many if, and or but statements you can use, so it give you the opportunity to input complex trading strategies. 1. You can back-test as many bars as you have data for. TradeStation 6 does not put a limitation on this. 2. We started storing the one-minute intra-day futures data in February of the year 2001. You will be able to access this data for analysis with the TradeStation 6 platform. We have the data available in its original format, as well as backwards adjusted to flow as a continuous contract. 3. Yes, you can program tests using multiple time-frames. 4. The real-time data is corrected and the long-term intra-day data that is available is based on this corrected data. Therefore you should not experience the inconsistencies you mentioned. 5. I can only answer this based on conversations I've had with former MS users. They have told me that they found EasyLanguage very easy compared to the programming they had to do in MS. We also have interactive tutorials built into the new TradeStation 6 that will have you up and running on the basic charts, quote windows, ticker-tape, NewsWindows, Level II and Ranking Lists in no time. Hope this helps. If you need anything else, all my contact information is on this site. Always eager to help, Doreen