Is paying 113 dollars a month for Trade Station worth it. Is there somebody else that offers the software for less? Is there a firm that sells quotes and software, so that I could get my trades elsewhere? How much does IB charge per month? Does IB have the basic advanced TA software that one needs? Should I pay tradestation $113 per month or what? I'm primarily a position trader. I'd like to study Fibonacci ratio, and Gann lines.
I think there is no need to pay those fees if you position trade. When you add up it's a lot of money over a year. If you were to maintain an IRA with a 1/10 of TS monthly cost some people would certainly tell you you spend too much. Why then would you spend so much for your trading account? I think there a more cost efficient ways to backtest your strategies. I can see all those who spend hundreds per month coming in a minute and tell me what a "cheap charlie" I am and that I make them laugh. I don't care. In the end, trading is about building wealth and the battle is won over the long term . If you have a big account 100K +and TS fee is all you spend on your data and you trade full time . Yeah I guess it can make sense otherwise I don't think so.
Tradestation software is a Mercedes. If you want to work with anything from a junker to a 4 cylinder 5 speed it is out there and it is cheap. Max
You can look on eBay and see if you can find TS2000i, some people sell their (unused) software there. I bought mine outside the US when the US has stopped selling TS2000i but when it was still available in other countries. If you want an intraday feed then you can use IB with a free interface from www.hypertrader.it (no connection with them, just a happy user). But IB does not offer historical data so the data you'll have to build up by letting the software collect real time However TS2000i is good for intraday but not so good for EOD stuff. ( It all depends what you want to do. ) For EOD I am using Metastock which can do scanning. If you want to be cost concious then you may use free data from yahoo.com or some other website that has quotes. www.trading-tools.com has in my eyes one of the best downloaders of free data for metastock and ascii format. It is extemely fast and you can select different servers which is handy if one particular server does not have the quotes you are looking for. You can even subscribe to a paid server through that program (again I have no connection with that vendor / product except that I am a happy user). I personally lament the demise of standalone software and the "forcing down your throat" of server authenticated software. Not all of us want and/or are able to be connected to the internet all the time. If you are into Gann then you may be unhappy with TS as Gann had some things that TS cannot do and that MS can do. There are also many "cheap" packages available, Ensign, Sierra etc spring to mind. Just try many and see what you like best but for EOD I would see if I could find a standalone package that does not require you to be connected all the time to the internet. Just my opinion.
Don't forget that TS's base fee of $100/month + exchange fees includes real time data. If you need data, then factor that in when you make comparisons. DS
It all depends on your trading style and what percs you need to make that trading style effective consistently. For me, yes, well worth the $$$. mktman
US data from IB is free if you have > $ US 30 in commisions per month, otherwise it is $ US 10 / month.