Why can't you back fill with Ensign? I am a happy Ensign user and have used Tradestation in the past too. In my opinion, there is no comparison, Ensign's features and frequent upgrades (every two weeks or so) make it an easy choice for me.
Sarasota, I am looking for a streamlined trading platform as I travel often and trade off my laptop in hotel rooms. Using ensign with a data vendor and a second party plug in to AUTOTRADE on Interactive brokers etc..etc.. I'm glad you like it, don't think it would be workable for me. I am looking for experienced Tradestation 7.2 user comments who backtest on intraday data, AUTO-TRADE, scalp etc..
Just a sidenote : Automated trading from TS requires a continuous internet connection. If you're in hotels etc. this might add up in costs. And I don't think any SCALPING system can be automated.....
bobcathy1, Is TS7.2 available yet? I keep trying to go to the TS website and do the download platform now. And it said version 7.1 Build 1118??! So, 7.2 is NOT available even after all this ads saying it is? I've waited a while and it's still on the same build. hmm...
That is a good point, the slippage from auto will kill any short term high frequency system. The best use in my mind of auto is swing or longer term trading, especially good if you are trading multiple markets with multiple systems. 100% of my trading has been automated, my style is swing futures trading. The systems uses mkt orders, for liquid mkts like ES/NQ that is not a problem. TS auto is very reliable, I have dual Cable/DSL connection, the newer version 7.2 will survive short outages.
I use TS 7.2 rather extensively and use it for intraday trading, mostly scalps or quasi-scalps. I personally love it. The charts are very clean, very customizable, and there seems to be almost no price lag, although that could just be b/c i have a superfast dsl line being right next door to the hub.. The data is scrubbed quite often it seems and the few times there have been price spikes, many have been scrubbed before days end and almost always by EOD... The stability has gotten much better over the last year. I can't comment on how it compares to IB b/c i have never used IB...I also can't comment on how it compares to Metastock, since i have used TS since TS 4 and am fairly used to EasyLanguage, although from what I've read, it seems just as good if not better. But again, I have seen some mixed reviews. TS does have about 10 years of intraday data as well, which is useful.. I also can't comment on AutoTrade features since I haven't used them. All I can say is that the TS platform has been very stable for me, very fast(or fast enough) for intraday trading, the charts are more than satisfactory for intraday trading, and the backtesting feature is very powerful, although my one gripe with it was that it couldn't backtest across a portfolio of stocks and couldn't manage risk within a portfolio. So what i had to do was backtest each stock individually and then transfer into Excel...This is tedious when u are testing a strategy on a large sample of stocks...there is a program out which does this well, I believe it is called TScout(?) It isn't affiliated with TS and I'm not even sure if it ever came out, but i went to a seminar that demonstrated it and it was impressive..
if u have the 7.1 build, just call them up and request the 7.2 build and they will give it to you...at least that is what i did...
mr_minty: I keep on hearing that TS has 10yrs of intraday data. That's bogus! I can only download 1yr. And when I try to download 2002 intraday data on a large stock liek IBM even. It doesn't give me the data. It said to hold on and it will dl another time. Have you personally been able to download 10yrs of intraday data on ANY SINGLE STOCK? thanks
Yes...I haven't had a problem downloading intraday.....I think I know what u mean about that though, it was a little tricky at first...I do it after peak time, so anytime after market close...then it downloads it immediately...perhaps your problem may be trying to do it during the peak hours? if it didn't change the chart immediately, you'll get a PD signal (partial download), and then what i do is have it run a strategy or optimization report and then the chart will update...Sometimes it will do it automatically, sometimes not...also be careful if u have moving averages or studies that require a cretain amount of bars....so what i do is insert a daily chart along with the intraday chart, and then set the dates for the daily to 1 year earlier than the intraday time period i'm interested in....hope that helps... if not, PM me and I'll see if i can figure it out
I mean have you PERSONALLY dl 10 YEARS of a stock INTRADAY history? Which stock(s) and your step by step guide to doing it? I always get this too much data you'll have to wait for another time stuff. Even on the weekends. So, it's off market hours. Hmm...