The Curious Story of TickZoom

Quote from bluelou:

maxpi,
Yes, I have both Ninja and OpenQuant licenses but I'm only using Ninja. Do you use OQ and do you use tick-bars or ticks in your auto-trading?

I stopped trying to develop in OQ about a year ago after I got tired of the firm's non-responsiveness when the platform kept crashing on me.

At this juncture I've come to the conclusion that Ninja was good enough to develop an automated tick-based strategy but its poor resource utilization rules it out for trading a portfolio of strategies/instruments.

Do you think I could actually auto-trade a portfolio of tick-based strategies w/OpenQuant? By portfolio, I mean that I'd be happy to get to 20-30 strategies running concurrently on a platform. I'm really in a bind here b/c I'm ready to scale up the number of strategies traded. Any advice that points to a solution would be sincerely appreciated.

-Lou

Slow responder here, sorry.. I have a little experience with Openquant, but single instrument only. The backtester is slow but you can just toss all your whole test into one big sim anneal backtest and come back in the morning... I really never had any crash problems with OQ. If I want something to work I keep it behind a white listing firewall, I swear, 98% of problems just never happen then
 
Quote from jdeezero05:

The thing is I don't think its a "gimmick", if you followed the original thread as mentioned the guy didn't know if he was coming or going. Wouldn't surprise me if it goes back to open source next week, then back to non OS the week after. He seemed like a decent software engineer who has no business being a project lead or running a business.

Agree.

I can't imagine how much money a guy like that can lose trading... It's quite understandable how he wants to be a vendor now...
 
Quote from kandlekid:

Especially weird since it appears to be open source. How often do you see an open source product compete directly with a proprietary product ? Not often (at least not officially). Stick with NT/Zen. If this TZ company wants to compete, give me a demo. No demo, no competition. It's that simple.

I'm not running a charity (and, I assume, neither are you).

The entire TickZOOM platform is open source to Gold members. Only the engine which does nothing else but convert data to bars and events is closed except to members who pay extra to get that source.

There is a trial demo open only to applicants who's application gets accepted.

There's an old video demo of tickzoom but a very simplistic GUI. A new one will be updated and publicly available but only during our "windows" of opportunity to apply.
 
Quote from auspiv:

tickzoom - open source and FREE:
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148025&highlight=tickzoom

an about face if i ever saw one.

You're right. TickZoom remains committed to open source, makes heavy use of compatible open source and will remain so.

But, unfortunately, the only viable business model was to charge major bucks to provide world class support and service.

For example, if a member reports a critical bug or needed enhancement in tickzoom, they get a new build released and fixed in hours (not months or years like others).

That's all due to 2 reasons.

1) an extreme amount of automation in the Q&A, testing, build, and release system.

2) TickZoom keeps a very limited number of users. We recently booted the freebie users. And we only support trial users during the limited trial window of opportunity every couple of months.

In short, tickzoom aims to "make love" to paying members. And the TickZOOM paying members love this attitude very, very much as you can imagine.

They all volunteered to post testimonials and answer questions during the next window of opportunity.

If anyone can't afford tickzoom or get accepted for the demo, let them use TradeStation, NinjaTrader, OpenQuant, MultiCharts, Trading Blox, etc.

There's plenty of other trading platforms.
 
Quote from bluelou:

Yes, the guy's name is Wayne || tickzoom || greaterreturn || chaostheory, et al.

Here he is on ET in action as 'chaostheory' slowly roping me into the $1500 open-source bait-and-switch:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164629

In hindsight, the part where his alter ego 'chaostheory' said he tried tickzoom and that it was so fast that it "almost made me pee on myself" is pretty funny.

-bluelou

P.S. I think part of the product is still "open source" but I think he's trying to charge for the part that is the tick data "engine" as he called it.

Everyone, with all due respect to bluelou, it appears you will continue to find an increasing number of posters on elitetrader and elsewhere unhappy about being turned down as potential members.

That a byproduct of the fact that we only have 5 openings for this next window of opportunity.

An unfortunate situation. I'm open to ideas on how to remedy that.

Wayne
 
Quote from jdeezero05:

The thing is I don't think its a "gimmick", if you followed the original thread as mentioned the guy didn't know if he was coming or going. Wouldn't surprise me if it goes back to open source next week, then back to non OS the week after. He seemed like a decent software engineer who has no business being a project lead or running a business.

It's kind of you to put in a positive word and I concur. That's why I brought on board a business manager. He's semi retired with tech and other experience at business management.

He's been very helpful.

Yes, my primary value add to the business will be in the software engineering.

FYI, people say TZ switched from open source to closed.

That's false. It was never different that it is right now except it ET discussions. It has always been a fully open source platform and commercially open source engine.

What recently did change was that we booted the anonymous, freebie users ability to download the trial version and closed the forum to members only.

That happened because tickzoom added game changing features suggested by members. Those same members hate to see any anonymous freebie user getting access.

Unfortunately, none of the paying members like the idea tickzoom offering anything free except a limited time trial.

All the paying members tell horror stories of signing up for software, even expensive packages but their needs "fell on deaf ears" as the software companies focused on adding features to attract new users rather than assisting current users.

Thanks again jdeezero05.
 
Quote from TSGannGalt:

Agree.

I can't imagine how much money a guy like that can lose trading... It's quite understandable how he wants to be a vendor now...

Interestingly, my entire trading record including discretionary before automated is well above break even. But not much, admittedly. In discretionary trading I was one of those that tended to lose back big winnings.

As far as automated, that's working well. I just wish there were more capital in my account. But it grows. But even a 50% return on $1 is only 50 cents. LOL

To your point about losing money with a system, it's strange what nay sayers claim about trading and even automated trading.

In contrast, TZ has a variety of successful members including institutions that make millions auto trading (before finding tickzoom) and individuals who successfully trade automated for their living (also before finding tickzoom)...no "day job".

To that point, tickzoom screens members to only accept winners and preferably traders who are already winners before finding tickzoom.

Those same nay sayers often recommend to let them join because there's tons of money to be made by selling software to the 90% of people who will only waste money on software and course and never profit from the markets.

I say, let those people please use a different software platform.

Wayne
 
Quote from tickzoom:



1) an extreme amount of automation in the Q&A, testing, build, and release system.

You mean, standard software development best practices like build files, automated unit and functional testing, continuous integration etc.?
 
Quote from bluelou:

Yes, the guy's name is Wayne || tickzoom || greaterreturn || chaostheory, et al.

Here he is on ET in action as 'chaostheory' slowly roping me into the $1500 open-source bait-and-switch:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164629

In hindsight, the part where his alter ego 'chaostheory' said he tried tickzoom and that it was so fast that it "almost made me pee on myself" is pretty funny.

-bluelou

P.S. I think part of the product is still "open source" but I think he's trying to charge for the part that is the tick data "engine" as he called it.

Bluelou,

By the way, you were very nice on the phone and I don't take any of this personally.

Since, on the phone, you told several stories about getting burned by several other trading platform vendors, it's understandable the pain you experience.

And I apologize for our acceptance policy. We have to make decisions in the memberships best interest.

Your negative press here is appreciated since, as they say, "all press is good press".

It seems that applicants turned away from tickzoom will provide far more publicity than satisfied members.

I wish you every success in your trading!

Sincerely,
Wayne

P.S. To everyone, I'm disabling notification on this thread to avoid the temptation to keep beating a dead horse. I wish you all the best.
 
Quote from tickzoom:


...

Wayne

All I have to say is... for you to stick with one alias.

People changing their aliases every 2-3 months is a good indication of a troll / spammer... You're already starting to get a reputation as a churn with how you handled bluelou's question in and out of ET.

Seriously, think twice before you do something and don't post things while drunk... It's "only ET" but it's a public forum. You have a track record for being inconsistent and posting "stupid" comments in a serious tone. In another words, you're a very easy target...

Good luck with you. You'll need it.
 
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