Who's not happy with TradeStation?

I want to try tradestation out soley for charting purposes, and the ability to create and back test strategies. Mainly for day trading purposes.

I'm am currently running TN Silver, and it is lacking in it's ability, and I do not want to fork over $2500 for the platinum to have the ability to do backtesting.

I plan on opening up a brokerage account with TS so that the monthly fees are reasonable($99 vs. $250).

Are you guys satisfied for the most part with your Tradestation charting package?

Thanks in advance,
Forrest

 

Don't forget as part of the cost that TradeStation makes you pay monthly data fees.

 

Yep, so to view ES, which is mainly what I need to see it would be $125 monthly I believe.

 

The CME exchange data fee will cost $25 for just e mini data, $40 includes all of Globex plus market depth.

If you do 10RT, they waive the $99 platform fee.

 

Cheap. Used to cough up $2,000+ for ts when is was software based and then $300+/month for data via dtn or signal 15 years ago. You had $5,000 in the game just to study for a year.

 

I've been a TS user for a few years now. I use several brokers for execution: I use TS for live testing of automated strategies only with smaller size. My advice to you is that if you trade larger size (positions > $100k or more than 10 contracts per turn) do not use TS as your primary broker.

Their commissions are not very good and their reliability suffers at the worst possible times. Customer service is there until you absolutely need it... and when you absolutely need it, you will be on hold for 3 hours hoping to get through. This has happened to me 2 times this year and while these situations didn't cost me much so far, if it happens enough times there will be a time when it really hurts.

As a software package I think TS is OK.

The good: You have access to a lot of intraday data as well as quick strategy testing. Of all the backtesting products I've tried, none allow as quick implementation and testing of concepts as TS does.

The bad: The platform is not robust. I've had to clear the TS cache folder sooo many times over the years... TS users know what I'm talking about. The software does break and it also has a lot of trouble with Vista. There have been little to none improvements to the core software since I became a customer. Also, moving money to/from my account is a pain.

THE ABSOLUTELY UGLY: NO PORTFOLIO BACKTESTING. This irks me so much: TS charges high commissions, they charge you for a 2nd rate platform (99/month), provide poor brokerage service when you need it most, and after thousands of requests by ALL of its customers TS still does not provide a portfolio backtesting feature. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

Overall, you get a lot of features. Great charting, easy strategy testing for single products. But, IMO TS does not respond to customer requests and does some critical things very badly. The NO PORTFOLIO BACKTESTING issue really just pissess me off

Mike

 

All,

If you are just looking for a charting and back testing package with near real time data (delayed and no streaming), check out our new offering "eSignal On Demand" for only $24.95 per month with no exchanges fees.

http://www.esignal.com/esignal/esignal_ondemand.aspx

Chuck
@eSignal

 

Mike,
Thanks for that detailed response. That's about what I'm looking for.

Chuck,
I gotta have real-time data as I do daytrade. Looking for something I can write whatever I want for, and have the ability to auto-backtest various strategies.

 

Looks like TS just added backtesting:

New for 8.3

Ever wish there was a risk-free way to test your trading and strategy ideas under real-time market conditions, using the industry's leading trading platform?

TradeStation's new trading Simulator is designed to help take your trading to the next level. Simulator brings an even greater level of confidence to your trading, allowing you to harness the power of TradeStation's award-winning platform and test your trading ideas in real time in today's markets—without risking your own money.

No matter which markets you trade or would like to begin trading—equities, options, futures or forex—Simulator allows you to see how your ideas would perform under "live" market conditions—with no financial risk whatsoever.

 

mark:

Does the simulator lose the connection to the CME just like the live platform? If you can simulate being on hold with the trading desk for 20 minutes, I wanna be involved with this!

el surdo