TradeStation

It seems that most of the discussions focus on IB, i am wondering what do you guys think about TradeStation? Is it competitive? what are its strengths and weaknesses

 

It is an unrivaled system back-testing program with decades of built-in historical data.

In my opinion most people who use it do so mainly for that reason.

It's rates are reasonable too.

It mostly lags IB's platform in raw trading functionality though (example: no futures options except through a separate platform).

 

so you are saying that TradeStation is mostly used for testing, and the actual trading is done elsewhere?

 

Strategy development and testing is its main strength.

But once you develop strategies in TradeStation, it is easiest to execute them within the same platform.

Its execution capabilities may not be the very best, but they are adequate for most uses. People do not always need bells and whistles.

 

I have TradeStation and IB. I'm not sure I see any difference in their executions, although TradeStation's order entry interface is much more user-friendly than IB's.

All kinds of third party developers have created order entry software for IB, which gives one plenty of customization options to choose from. But that gives rise to other x-factor risks. For example, I'm currently experimenting with the loftily rated ButtonTrader. But after three days use, I've already uncovered one bug (for which the developer, to his credit, rushed out a patch). More worrisome, ButtonTrader may have yesterday fired off an unauthorized trade (still looking into this one; strange and, obviously, unsettling).

So, with an eye to the K.I.S.S. principle, I'm thinking TradeStation's looking better and better.

 

I should clarify...almost certainly, ButtonTrader did NOT fire off an unauthorized trade. Almost certainly, I did something stupid...or there was a IB TWS server malfunction.

 

if you could, what would you like to have it changed?

 

I have used TradeStation for many years and I really like it. Other than the back-testing, it offers great charts and order entry system. I usually appreciate it all the more after trying out other trading programs, including IB, at different times. TS costs more than many other programs I believe, and the brokerage charges higher but still reasonable commissions and data fees. It is worth it though.

 

I have had Trade Station for many years. I started back in the day when I had a BMI satellite data feed on my roof ($500 a month for data in the 90’s) and you needed to buy Trade Station and Option Station outright. Later on they got rid of anyone who owned the program and became a monthly fee platform. After that it was a better platform until………. The cheap programmers that they hired!

The platform's Easy Language is excellent (but limited for serious programers and that is not me or most users) for anyone who wants to back test strategies and the platform works well. The issues are is it has a delay because the code that it is written in runs slow. ESignal, Ninja Trader and most others run a bit faster. Their charts are superior but running multi symbol strategies are a issue. Everything else works great!

Again, the main issues I have with the platform is all of the cheap programmers who have worked on it over the years have written a lot of dirty code. This is very common when it comes to hiring people in South Florida because everyone lies on their resume. No matter what version I have tried over the years, sooner or later (about 3 months) it will crash your computer and you need to reinstall everything. These people are in the business of selling a dream and are only concerned with the bells and whistles that they can offer to get new clients into the door. Also the people you call are paid on commission so don’t trust any offer they give you. I have been to their head quarters and have seen some of the people who work there. There are a lot of screw ups in the company and they seem to hire friends of friends and in South Florida that is a BIG Problem. If you take their EL boot camp or training courses there might be a guy by the name of Mike Burke. He is a real good guy and really goes out of his way to help people. Since he does such a good job he is probably fired by now. You know making the other screw ups look bad is not good for the other employees!

In the end, the platform has a lot of great features mainly on charting and indicators. But if you need speed and tape reading features go elsewhere. Charts are the best I have seen anywhere!

Just a FYI, I have never worked for these people so It is not personal!

 

As one of the oldest users of Trade Station one of my favorite features is the plentiful historical data.

They offer decades of data on most symbols from 1 minute bars and up.

They have six months of tick data on almost all symbols and this data can be easily archived so that I have years of tick data on some symbols.

Futures tick data comes by contract or in continuous format. They now also have six months of 1 second and up data.

The back testing offers both brute force and genetic optimizing.

New price series and order placements objects allow for much flexibility and spot on executions for almost any trading protocol.

There is a tool that makes it very easy to export both raw and domain pre-processed data to excel.

Easy language is easy to learn and the development kit makes it easy to operate and call dlls.

The platform is only $100 a month and free w/minimal trading. You can get real time futures data from CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX all for just $25 a month.

The Radar Screen/Scanner is also free w/minimal trading and one of the most versatile scanners around.

Commissions are not the lowest around but they are certainly competitive and with increases in volume they go down fast.


Jack