http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73057 Take a look at some recent 'fun' with TS.
I have never found TS to be a reliable and worthy product.....sad customer service mixed with inferior performance for feed and execution speeds compared to others. but the charting is OK.....LOL
Great charts, not good. Average to poor trade execution. I only swing trade enough trades to get the platform free. If you have a problem that requires a person, you could wait awhile. The reason I use TS is twofold. One, I know easylanguage and can write indicator code on the fly. And two, Radarscreen. Aside from Neoticker and couple of very expensive screeners its excellent to find/scan for criteria you're looking for. For me, this is critical as I filter a fairly large group of stocks. Customer service is lacking. Matrix scares me. Stocks better than futures for execution. Which is why I swing trade. Scalping can be problematic. If you dont need a scanner, comparable charting can be had, and better trade execution platforms, and definitely better broker reliability. Nearly non existant interest on your equity balances. Tradestations problem was trying to be all things to everybody. But of course probably more money in commish than software license.
I am a long time user of TradeStation as well as other platforms. Their data feed is extremely reliable and on the rare occasion when I do have a problem, their trade desk usually answers the phone on the second or third ring. I have learned to appreciate their response when I have a power failure or the computer crashes. I highly recommend TradeStation to you - it is a good product and their support is outstanding...
Data feed reliable? NOT in futures, that's for sure, especially as of late - EC with sporadic 50+ tick moves that never really happened (they clear it out later), QM data a good 15-30 minutes behind and this week we lost all charting for 20-25 minutes. Don't believe it? Check the TradeStation forums yourself. You have to register, but there are plenty of disgruntled posts there.
I am not going to defend TS and say they are perfect. I have been on TS for 5 years and have an average of 5 major data/connectivity problems a year. It is generally an exchange F up lately. I have redundancy and more than one execution choice so I am never going to be screwed as a result of a data failure. I have used various vendors for charts and am very comfortable using TS over other chart vendors. Are there other good ones , sure, for less money....you tell me? Brownsfan, your ranting is getting boring already. We got your point 50 X already bro. Move on.
Ditto. If you trade pre or postmarket and rely on 'intelligent' routing, DO NOT trade with TradeStation. They will automatically route your order to brut, even if it means an inferior execution. I have no idea how many thousands of dollars this cost me before I figured it out. (And yes, they confirmed that this is the case.)
I forgot about that. Toonces is correct. AVOID pre/post market trades. Look, TS is fine platform for charting. Others are as good. Where TS shines is easylanguage(writing code), radarscreen, strategy/backtesting. And the fact they've been around since Supercharts so there is a ton of 3rd party support. Just about any problem or question can be dealt with on their forums. If you are a code ignoramus but have ideas to implement you can have it written for reasonable price by dozens if not hundreds of people. They are NOT a first tier brokerage. But acceptable for a backup in emergencies. I will say that their stock execution during RTH is usually good. IB among others is just as good or better.
The person asked for the pros/cons of TS. I mentioned it ONCE in this thread. Had the original poster just done a search for TS, this thread would not even be needed. As for mysterious 50 tick moves, it's a big deal if you plan to trade this market. There are guys posting at the TS forum that their automated triggers are happening b/c of these moves and then getting killed. Is that important to know when shopping around? I think so if the EC is what you plan to trade. You obviously do not trade the EC off TS data, so it doesn't mean much to you and that's fine. But for those of us that do, it's a BIG deal.