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Real Tick or Trade Station?????????
- Thread starter lakehick
- Start date
I have both RealTick and TradeStation. They have different strengths and weaknesses. I use RealTick as my primary trading platform and TradeStation for charts.
RealTick: Order placement, modifications, keyboard macros - superb. Fast. Change your bid price by 1 penny? Done in 0.5 seconds by pressing one programmed button. Reliable. But the chart features suck.
TradeStation: Charts, writing custom indicators and trading strategies for backtesting - superb. Order placement is fast. But order modification sucks. (e.g. lower my bid price by 1 penny - 3 to 4 level of cascaded menus. 5 to 6 seconds)
Choose base on what's important to you.
Both are fairly reliable. Outages do happen but rare. (Like once a year)
RealTick: Order placement, modifications, keyboard macros - superb. Fast. Change your bid price by 1 penny? Done in 0.5 seconds by pressing one programmed button. Reliable. But the chart features suck.
TradeStation: Charts, writing custom indicators and trading strategies for backtesting - superb. Order placement is fast. But order modification sucks. (e.g. lower my bid price by 1 penny - 3 to 4 level of cascaded menus. 5 to 6 seconds)
Choose base on what's important to you.
Both are fairly reliable. Outages do happen but rare. (Like once a year)
Quote from Bolimomo:
RealTick: Order placement, modifications, keyboard macros - superb. Fast. Change your bid price by 1 penny? Done in 0.5 seconds by pressing one programmed button. Reliable. But the chart features suck.
Apparently my post attracted some attention.
On second thought, I think "suck" is too strong a term to describe RealTick's charting capability. Let me change it to "usable". But not that exciting.
You would get the regular stuff: candlestick/bar, different periodicities, and add some standard studies like Stochastics, RSI, On Balance Volume and such. But:
You are only given 3 panes: Top (price and overlays), Middle and Bottom. If you want to have more than 2 studies at the bottom, oh well, you need to turn them into a composite.
Compared to TradeStation's charting features, the gap is very large. TradeStation:
- Different chart types (e.g. point and figure)
- Many more built-in indicators to choose from
- Allows up to 16 subgraphs for your studies/indicators
- Most importantly - allow you to create your own custom indicators or modify the existing indicators. Let you time-shift your indicator.
- Allows alerts based on indicator values
The list can go quite a bit longer.
I considered them both a few years ago when I switched platforms. From what I could tell, I though they both met my needs well enough. I even traveled to the traders expo specifically to shop for software. However, Realtick gave me a free no obligation trial period. Tradstation insisted I set up an account in order to try their software. They did say they would close it if I didn't like it, but they REFUSED to let me try their software in my office without handing them a check. How boring.
Obviously, I chose Realtick and have been pretty happy with my decision.
Obviously, I chose Realtick and have been pretty happy with my decision.
how much does realtick cost per month (im assuming you got the "trader" version)
I'm looking into getting a new platform too
I'm looking into getting a new platform too
TradeStation has a lot to be desired. Can't execute custom, mixed baskets, difficult to hot key orders, hard to prioritize routes, etc.
It's the backtesting ability that keeps me using TradeStation though. Also, the fact that all the ticks are organized and split adjusted, so I can write them to my own database and work with them there through the DLL link.
It's amazing awesome and terrible suck all rolled up into one. I'm having a hard time ditching the platform after having spent a lot of time learning its quirks, though.
It's the backtesting ability that keeps me using TradeStation though. Also, the fact that all the ticks are organized and split adjusted, so I can write them to my own database and work with them there through the DLL link.
It's amazing awesome and terrible suck all rolled up into one. I'm having a hard time ditching the platform after having spent a lot of time learning its quirks, though.
been with TS for 6+ years - no complaints - good auto strategy development API - cust service not bad - reliable - i give them a thumbs up
Quote from lakehick:
What direct access broker has the best rep and can be trusted? How much cash can you trust these people with.........New to this, don't want my butt handed to me....any advise!
I would look at Schwab. They have a nice platform that used to be Cybertrader. They watered it down some when they ditched the Cybertrader operation, but it has better charting than RealTick and avoids the headache of dealing with TradeStation.
RealTick is licensed to brokers, so the experience can vary a lot depending upon who you are with. I used it years ago and found the platform to be ok, but the interaction between the broker and the clearing firm, Penson, led to some very annoying issues. Schwab and IB self-clear, so they are more seamless.
Obviously IB should be a consideration as well. Probably not the best option for someone who wants or needs a lot of handholding.
Quote from tradeshark:
been with TS for 6+ years - no complaints - good auto strategy development API - cust service not bad - reliable - i give them a thumbs up
Wait until you are in a position and the platform shuts down, only happens once or twice a year, but good luck getting them on the phone.
Make sure you have a "Plan B"!