I am a scalper and do large size/volume. I'm leaving TD Ameritrade for Tradestation to avoid commissions (TD is enforcing the 390 order limit and charges $2 an order). I trade the news and other catalysts that are really volatile, so seconds matter. I just completed my first full week trading with Tradestation and it appears their minute charts are about 1 second slower to load than TD's ToS when changing to a different ticker. This might not seem like much, but for what I do, its huge. I've adjusted the settings to limit the data the chart has to download and I've adjusted the "Streaming Data Optimization" so its not throttling anything. My setup uses a minute chart, a daily chart, and the matrix, all linked. So its not a ton of stuff. But its still slower than ToS. Any other suggestions? Are charts in version 9.5 faster than version 10? Thank you
Interesting, for the last couple days of this last week I've been having the same issue on TOS. My set up is similar with the 1, 5, 15 minutes and 1h chart all linked. When switching stocks, they all do except for the 1 minute chart which can take a minute or so to load. Hadn't had this issue before. I reached out to their cs and all I got was a, "so your chart takes a short time to load..." that didn't go too well with me.
Not sure I understand the question, but it's supposed to be instant. When day trading, if I have to wait 30 seconds for the chart to load, it's a big problem. If this was constant I wouldn't use the chart at all and would have to learn to get accustomed to other ways, but it's the uncertainty that's frustrating because my instant alternative is the 5 minutes chart which doesn't help when you were reading to click buy or sell....
Without recording it and timing it, I would guess TOS is half a second and Tradestation is ~1.5 seconds. But that’s my setup, which I’m hoping I can change to get it faster.
Are your charts slow all day or only for a couple minutes here and there throughout the day? After using TOS for a year, I’ve experienced a number of times where it just slowed down out of the blue, and minute charts just wouldn’t load, then it would resolve after a minute or even a couple seconds. Guessing those instances are something on their end that we can’t really control. If it’s all day, then its likely something on your end. I trade with 3 other people using TOS and they haven’t been having issues.
Nothing on computers is instant. Recalculating the candles and plotting them takes time. It definitely should not take 30 seconds - but it may take 1 or 2 or 3. Depending on the way the program is written - if every time you switch the data is reloaded from servers it may take quite a bit longer... That is what I was asking the original poster. It is for my own curiosity - I know how long Medved Trader's charts take to switch, and I have never ran Tradestation, so wanted to compare.
Compare them while they are running at different PCs and Internet lines. Someone said when you run more than one platform under the same PC and internet line, one of them gets slower, believe or not.... By the way, TOS and TDA is one of the most terrible platforms/brokers for scalpers as far as I know.
I haven't had this issue before last week so it's more likely something on their end, and it only happens with the 1 mn chart while the 3 others load up with no perceived delay, and it doesn't happen all the time, which is an added problem when discussing it with their support. It shows that it's loading but stalls long enough to be more than frustrating. While waiting for the chart to load, I switched my 5 mn chart to a 1 mn and it loaded.... but I have my 1 mn chart showing the bid, not the last price. I always buy the bid unless strong demand requires that I buy the ask. Usually I trade 1 or 2 stocks, more rarely 3, at the same time so when I switch I need the charts to be with me or else.