Trade Station is far worse than IB

suriNotes · Nov 10, 2007

I use TS 8.2 (Build 3863) , TS 8.3 ( Build 1355) on two CPU's and I agree with Anek that I rarely see TS freezes anymore.

I have 4 GB RAM/Dual Core CPUs and run 4 TS workspaces and a Dozen or so charts with atleast 5-6 indicators per chart, RS scans using extensive Mathematical pattern scans on Tick (610Tick charts) /5m Charts for Eminis...
My primary CPU (with TS 8.2, 3863) has 6 Dell 20" monitors, nVidia Quatro NVS800 graphics card.. The other CPU I use for Order entry and drives TS 8.3 (1355) primarily for backup purposes...

Only during excessive volume surges (like FOMC news) or if slow Cable speeds I see freezes.

One of the technique I use is to avoid (A simple TS code technique) using Intra-Bar Updates for all indicators or pattern scans, drawing tools. This technique itself reduces about 50-60% of CPU usage. Only intra-bar updates I use are Tick-Countdowns and price-updates and leave all scans at the End-of-bar... It works pretty fine for intra-day trading.

Regards,
Suri

stock777 · Nov 10, 2007

TS likely has code in it that was written in the 90's .

WaveStrider · Nov 10, 2007

"How serious are the bugs ?
- faulty calculations ?
- slow calcuations ?"

There is a litany of them that I have not taken the time to read through, but the number of postings in the TS forum was enough to give me pause on upgrading. They introduced Forex into 8.3 and it is likely suffering the jitters of the expansion.

At this rate I'd be willing to wait for 8.4

The cpu conservation can be done in 8.2 in code using intrabarpersist and Close <> Close[1]. They made it a setting in 8.3 to save you the coding effort. Shouldn't use the technique on Volume-based indicators though.

seasideheights · Nov 11, 2007

Don't take offense to this, but if TS was as bad as some of you are saying, why isn't the broker rating for TS here really terrible? Look at the broker rating on is here. Is it an extremely vocal minority with problems? or is it the majority? Ts does have a ton of customers.

myminitrading · Nov 11, 2007

Quote from seasideheights:

Don't take offense to this, but if TS was as bad as some of you are saying, why isn't the broker rating for TS here really terrible? Look at the broker rating on is here. Is it an extremely vocal minority with problems? or is it the majority? Ts does have a ton of customers.

Well thats easy just like every broker here including IB they monitor this site and make sure the ratings stay at least 70-30.

Come on use your head.

larrybf · Nov 11, 2007

question for tradestation users..........it sounds like TS problems relate to futures trading.... for stock trading , isnt the free platform for doing 5000 shares per month (2500 buy + 2500 sell ) worth it ??? i would like to get an account at TS for their intraday stock charts ??? thanks in advance

Trvlwanderer · Nov 11, 2007

Quote from larrybf:

question for tradestation users..........it sounds like TS problems relate to futures trading.... for stock trading , isnt the free platform for doing 5000 shares per month (2500 buy + 2500 sell ) worth it ??? i would like to get an account at TS for their intraday stock charts ??? thanks in advance

What is the money market interest rate on idle money?

That is significant on a 50k acount and all trades closed EOD......

DonKee · Nov 11, 2007

suriNotes,

What you have demonstrated is all very true.

1) IF you don't need your indicators to update intra-bar.

2) IF you do your order entry from a seperate cpu.

When I started this thread it was basically a warning to e-mini traders that TS is not the place to actively trade, unless you can work around their shortcomings, as you have.

For stock trading, it's probably fine.

Almost all of the freeze problems relate to active e-mini traders. When the ticks start blowin' in like a hurricane, the charts and order entry functions freeze up. BTW, during these periods, my quotes come in fine, it's just the charts get stuck because of the updating of the indicators and I guess that, also, freezes the order entry.

I was lucky to be short some YM's at about 3:30pm on Friday, when charts and order entry froze. I had to reboot. By the time I was back and running the YM's had dropped over 100 points. While this worked out in my favor, I could just as easily been on the wrong side of it.

Again, for stock traders TS is probably fine. For active e-mini traders with custom indicators on your charts, use caution and definitely have a back-up account (as you should anyway).

Quote from suriNotes:

I use TS 8.2 (Build 3863) , TS 8.3 ( Build 1355) on two CPU's and I agree with Anek that I rarely see TS freezes anymore.

I have 4 GB RAM/Dual Core CPUs and run 4 TS workspaces and a Dozen or so charts with atleast 5-6 indicators per chart, RS scans using extensive Mathematical pattern scans on Tick (610Tick charts) /5m Charts for Eminis...
My primary CPU (with TS 8.2, 3863) has 6 Dell 20" monitors, nVidia Quatro NVS800 graphics card.. The other CPU I use for Order entry and drives TS 8.3 (1355) primarily for backup purposes...

Only during excessive volume surges (like FOMC news) or if slow Cable speeds I see freezes.

One of the technique I use is to avoid (A simple TS code technique) using Intra-Bar Updates for all indicators or pattern scans, drawing tools. This technique itself reduces about 50-60% of CPU usage. Only intra-bar updates I use are Tick-Countdowns and price-updates and leave all scans at the End-of-bar... It works pretty fine for intra-day trading.

Regards,
Suri

syswizard · Nov 11, 2007

Quote from fseitun:

I use version 8.3 build 1419.
I did not trade the last FOMC but all of my charts along with YM matrix were open and nothing froze.
I am going to keep a close eye on any slowdown for the future though as I see several other members are experiencing major freezing.

What is your hardware set-up ?
O/S ?
Priority setting ?
No question, having a multi-level DOM screen really is a data barrage. My current platform only has inside-market, but again, it never slows down, never goes down.
I really wonder if TS users are getting hit with problems because of the DOM, and not just the price streams.

syswizard · Nov 11, 2007

Quote from suriNotes:

Only during excessive volume surges (like FOMC news) or if slow Cable speeds I see freezes.
One of the technique I use is to avoid (A simple TS code technique) using Intra-Bar Updates for all indicators or pattern scans, drawing tools. This technique itself reduces about 50-60% of CPU usage. Only intra-bar updates I use are Tick-Countdowns and price-updates and leave all scans at the End-of-bar... It works pretty fine for intra-day trading.
Regards,
Suri

Yes, this makes sense...and I wonder how many TS8 traders are updating their indicators on every tick...that would be just so CPU-intensive for some complex indicators.
It's starting to sound like there are TS 8 users who know what they're doing and others just running it without understanding some of these important technical details....and then bitching when it freezes or crashes.