Fed up with Tradestation

Kermit · Jul 22, 2003

Quote from nitro:

A very inexpensive way is to get a "used" TS2K with historical data for testing. For realtime, just add Dynastore and IQFeed. It is not perfect [especially filtering bad ticks] but it is very cost effective and you already know the software.

I am not looking into RealTick since it is beginning to look like they are catering to pros with things like indications and imbalances.

nitro

Nitro:

What has been your experience with Dynastore and TS2kIâs Global Server in terms of itâs reliability and stability during high volume/fast market scenarios in the past? I know you use IQFeed, but I understand eSignal is also compatible. You also mentioned filtration of bad ticks. Is that something thatâs handled by Dynastore if IQFeed (or eSignal) happens to pump a few of them over? Are bad ticks frequent enough to cause you problems? Thanks in advance.

Kermit

vanilla2 · Jul 22, 2003

so I checked out most of the Neoticker website. Two features that really jump out at me are the ability to mix tick and time based bars in the same window. Also, the fact that it drills down to seconds is very very cool. WOW, lets you script in VBScript and
Javascript as well. System portfolio testing. Dude.

I think I may demo the product. At first glance, I'm hesitant about the differences in how things are done compared to TS, but this is unfounded anxiety, I'm sure.

Did you get sufficient help and support learning their language? From reading the manual, the spoon fed features look sparse. For instance instead of having all sorts of properties dialogs boxes, tabs, check boxes, performance report menu options etc.... it looks like this is all set and requested in the strategy code. Cleaner, and more logical I think. It looks like it's literally just a charting platform where all the specifics are written in your code. I'm assuming you can script and plot any indicator you could think of and it could be based on as many symbols and windows as you want?

Can I ask which of these features WL doesn't also have?

chinook · Jul 23, 2003

Quote from vanilla2:

so I checked out most of the Neoticker website. Two features that really jump out at me are the ability to mix tick and time based bars in the same window. Also, the fact that it drills down to seconds is very very cool. WOW, lets you script in VBScript and
Javascript as well. System portfolio testing. Dude.

Wow I haven't noticed mixing of tick and and time based bars in the same chart in Neoticker! I have to use Dlls and bend backwards to be able to do that in TS!

nitro · Jul 23, 2003

Kermit,

This setup is VERY fragile when it goes bad. For example, if IQFeed disconnects you, for some reason Dynastore goes haywire [I think it is DS that jumps the rails.] This doesn't happen often, but if it does, the time to reboot the computer and get going again is a major pain, to say nothing of the fact that your charts now have a gap in them.

In addition, the Global Server, as you may be aware, is something of a joke when it comes to stability, and sometimes crashes. The sad part is that, when it does, there is no way to backfill automatically even though IQFeed supports it - this is because GS does not support backfilling - what a shame...

Finally, inspite of all the above problems, they rarely happen to me [knock on wood.] However, the bad tick problem really screws me up. AFAIK, there is no way to filter bad ticks either in GS or in Dynastore :mad:

I have come to live with these problems until I can find a piece of software that does everything I need it to do...

nitro

Quote from Kermit:

Nitro:

What has been your experience with Dynastore and TS2kIâs Global Server in terms of itâs reliability and stability during high volume/fast market scenarios in the past? I know you use IQFeed, but I understand eSignal is also compatible. You also mentioned filtration of bad ticks. Is that something thatâs handled by Dynastore if IQFeed (or eSignal) happens to pump a few of them over? Are bad ticks frequent enough to cause you problems? Thanks in advance.

Kermit

Splat · Jul 23, 2003

Yet no reply from Tradestation reps here on Elitetrader!! Maybe
they agree with this thread too!

Splat

Splat · Jul 23, 2003

I noticed strange problems the other day after I signed
upto Radarscreen. Tradestation keeps hanging when I bring
up a chart. Either I have to wait several minutes for TS to
'come back' or I have to kill it and restart. Also radarscreen hangs.
Admittedly I do have about 230 stocks which is a lot of stocks
but they claim that Radarscreen works with upto
1000 stocks.

The other thing I was very disappointed with is that TS
doesnt allow you short certain stocks. e.g. SOHU or SINA.
They claim the stocks are 'hard to borrow' yet I know other
people have been shorthing them with other brokers.
Believe me I was extremely pissed the other day.

Regards,

Splat

Eddy · Jul 23, 2003

Quote from chinook:
Are there any alternatives to TradeStation out there?
Thanks. [/B]

Chinook,
did you have a look to Investor RT from www.linnsoft.com ? It provides some easy way to write your own custom indicators.
Check out the Part III of the IRT/Ninjatrader automated trading tutorial at www.linnsoft.com/autotrading/ to have some concrete examples on how to write custom indicators (and implement them as an automated trading strategy)...

Eddy

Kermit · Jul 23, 2003

Quote from nitro:

Kermit,

This setup is VERY fragile when it goes bad. For example, if IQFeed disconnects you, for some reason Dynastore goes haywire [I think it is DS that jumps the rails.] This doesn't happen often, but if it does, the time to reboot the computer and get going again is a major pain, to say nothing of the fact that your charts now have a gap in them.

In addition, the Global Server, as you may be aware, is something of a joke when it comes to stability, and sometimes crashes. The sad part is that, when it does, there is no way to backfill automatically even though IQFeed supports it - this is because GS does not support backfilling - what a shame...

Finally, inspite of all the above problems, they rarely happen to me [knock on wood.] However, the bad tick problem really screws me up. AFAIK, there is no way to filter bad ticks either in GS or in Dynastore

I have come to live with these problems until I can find a piece of software that does everything I need it to do...

nitro

Nitro, thanks for the info. I was under the impression that Dynastore was capable of performing the backfill (since GS isnât) in order to eliminate gaps on the chart when interruptions like reboots occur and keep the data continuous just like TradeStation 7.x. Perhaps itâs just with IQFeed? Wonder how it is when interfacing with eSignal.

Kermit

chinook · Jul 23, 2003

Quote from Eddy:

Chinook,
did you have a look to Investor RT from www.linnsoft.com ? It provides some easy way to write your own custom indicators.
Check out the Part III of the IRT/Ninjatrader automated trading tutorial at www.linnsoft.com/autotrading/ to have some concrete examples on how to write custom indicators (and implement them as an automated trading strategy)...

Eddy

Eddy,

Thanks for the link but I don't see any scripting language capabilities in linsoft. It looks like I can somewhat custimize indicators but doesn't have the flexibility of TS, ESignal or NeoTicker.

Thanks.

JayF_eSignal · Jul 23, 2003

Quote from chinook:
Tradestation has Comstock feed and it has full of holes. Now you mentioned Comstock, I'll definetely stay away from e-signal!

I believe there is some confusion here. eSignal has had and will continue to have direct feeds from every U.S. domestic exchange. With the recent acquistion of Comstock by our parent company Interactive Data Corporation, we plan on extending our international exchange offerings.

Please know we have no plans on changing the direct feeds we currently carry.