I would NEVER use tradestation for anything, and I have never found their data feed to be up to par with other systems that I use, not even close. I have not used IB in over 7 years, so I do not have any recent experience with them......I will say that I see a lot of technical issue posts here about IB (how is their feeds?).
TS does pay 1.1% on free cash which is pathetic. Nothing on first 10k like IB why do they both do nothing on first 10k? Loan sharking for both!
5-P TS has a slow Data feed from what exchange?? or are you talking stocks. CME Futures have always been right on
__________________________________________________________________________ Strange....I have never found TS to be at the same feed speed of TT feed (or even the Transact feed back in the day when it worked with Trademaven). I had found TS unusable during fast market news release times, mainly for automated trades that have sequential order logic.....it did not fail all the time, just enough to know I should not use it.
OK, ur right on that score. It is a resource pig when the market is screaming like on this last FOMC day. If its maxing the box, I dare not make a trade. I got a faster box.
I've been using TradeStation for a month now. - Great charting - Matrix is awkward for entering orders in a moving market but is great for changing orders or entering in slower market. You can move your stop just by dragging the order to the new stop. Also, matrix makes it very simple and quick to close positions, cancel orders etc. - Commission structure is great for testing new strategies at small levels. 100 shares round trip is $2. Above 1,000 shares commissions become much more than competition. - Have not had a problem with data feed at all (equities). I have 2 gb ram, 3 ghz dual core processor. - TradeStation back office/admin lacks sophistication. Can't open account on line, very buraucratic rules about transferring money in and out of account, doesn't track your monthly volume to determine qualification for next month free (you have to track it yourself or call them). They need to apply the same sophistication to their admin that they do to their platform or get acquired by someone more sophisticated. - Interest rate on free cash should be near the bottom of selection criteria. If you're making trading returns, as opposed to investment returns, the difference between 1% and 5% annual interest rate is insignificant.
(b)If you think about it you can lock in 4.6% on a one month CD now days with a 5k minimum. Thats not a bad return for one month, with ZERO risk.(/b) Tell me where I can get 4.6% per month in a CD and I'll stop trading. 4.6% per month is 55.2% annually. In reality you can get 4.6% annually which is .38% per month.
Yes your right 1-5% is peanuts with a $5000.00 trading account and the free platform covers the lost rate of return. 2 years ago trading with tradestation was not a bad idea as no one was paying any interest. Traders with over 100k would be much better off with Interactive Brokers, or any other solid firm paying near 5.0%.