Been using TradeStation for trading options for a little while now and as a charting platform for the most part I am fairly happy with them. I have reached a point though where I am beginning to encounter limitations in the software's abilities to easily work with options.
Simple things ...like there is no consistent way to identify the front month options, the current ATM strike or the volume of an individual strike programically... Stupid problems to have I know.
I am interested in being able to run various real time calculations on various symbols and their respective strikes, but I have no interest in building an automated system for buying and selling ... just something to help with the math.
I have seen Excel, SQL Databases and such floated around and in some ways I like the idea of not being locked into a proprietary niche platform with a small user base for support, but at the same token I am also leery of trying to recreate the wheel from scratch ...my goal is to continue being a trader not necessarily become a programmer.
As I begin to explore the available solutions are there any good core components out there to work off of for doing more granular calculations on options ? I would really like to find something that is flexible enough to be able to continue to build on and ideally not have to switch platforms again.
Simple things ...like there is no consistent way to identify the front month options, the current ATM strike or the volume of an individual strike programically... Stupid problems to have I know.
I am interested in being able to run various real time calculations on various symbols and their respective strikes, but I have no interest in building an automated system for buying and selling ... just something to help with the math.
I have seen Excel, SQL Databases and such floated around and in some ways I like the idea of not being locked into a proprietary niche platform with a small user base for support, but at the same token I am also leery of trying to recreate the wheel from scratch ...my goal is to continue being a trader not necessarily become a programmer.
As I begin to explore the available solutions are there any good core components out there to work off of for doing more granular calculations on options ? I would really like to find something that is flexible enough to be able to continue to build on and ideally not have to switch platforms again.
