If I learned programming the TS2000 - do you suppose there is a decent market out there to sell my services to? My experience in trading and investments(technical analysis) go quite a ways back - I am looking to supplement my investment/trading income with *real* services offered. Anyone has a tip?
If you want to mix programming with a love for the markets, I would recommend learning java, visual basic, visual c++, c#, or some other programming language rather than easy language, and then looking for a position with an investment company. Easy language and Tradestation are typically used by individuals who already know how to program. The people who can't program and might be your target market tend to use non-programming charting software like Qcharts and TCNet -- not Tradestation. Easylanguage is also, IMHO, a dying language. TS2000i isn't sold anymore and TS6 has the drawback of coming with a broker attached and an inability to use third party data.
Try WealthLab. EasyLanguage is a dead language. Tradestation Tech.(Omega Research) made a big mistake going into TS6 and abandoning TS2000i. Hey, I want a job as a Trading System Developer. I can write a system that's profitable and the customer is already there. Seriously, I can code C/C++ but it's still hard, you need to be a good system developer to start out with. I think the programming language fluency comes next. Still good to be able program.
if you were going to start learning a stock market type programming language, what would you learn? are there any open standard type languages? kind of like a linux of the operating systems world?
I thought individual systems developers may have no time or the patience to develop EL code. I was not sure but there is a large user base and it is growing. If you want to develop commercial systems as I have done in the past (your potential client base is consolidating and cutting back more than ever...) Example; Robertson Stevens my old client firm in SF has closed shop. I worked on their prop trading system written in c++ and sybase. I figured individual traders are more numerous and may want some expert developers even if they could do the code..
I'd have to say Pascal is somewhat base of most Trading software languages but the hardest part about programming is not to learn the language itself but to create a logic for a system. Back when I was at a prop. firm, the guys there asked me to write a system for them. They used a 7-17 Moving Average and 7 Stochastic, they recommended this to the new traders as their training program. These guys were extremely discretionary about how they used the indicators. They would go in with one signal one time and another at another time. They also had no idea about a good trading system. When I showed them the Tradestation result on what they told me, they start dissing at me telling me they wouldn't go in at this signal because blah blah blah and they would go into the market with no signal because of blah blah blah. They couldn't admit their trading technique and signal was statistically negative. When the new traders came in, they sworn that the techniques they used are the best without flaws. But once a system trader comes in(me) and they see the results they get over sensitive. It took me 1 whole month just create a profitable system that they liked. They wouldn't let me put money management logic so it made it hard but with a little extra hidden criterias, I made a good system. I made some of the extra criterias to a protected function and DLL so that they can't figure it. Well, extra criteria was a trend capturing setup and I used their signals for timing. They liked the system and got paid with a casual lunch after market close.(All that work for a $10 Lunch Plate) That's the first and last time I wrote a system for another person. If I were to, I would only do it for someone who understands trading at least. Also, I quit the firm because the guys had no idea about trading in general. I've heard the guys were making a lot of money daytrading in the good ol' days but when everything changed they couldn't make money anymore. So... they decided to open up their own Prop. Firm. They busted out and closed the place 3 month after I left. This is what I've heard after I left but they also never traded the system I made and lost but the new traders were making money with it. They tried doing it but because they had their losing trading style with them, they would compulsively trade out the system. I guess they had a performance norm to pass when they started the firm to an investor and or because of it, the guys went crazy with their trading. It's one of my bad experiences in my trading career but it's also one of my best learned lesson about trading that came from another person.