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I am a discretionary trader. Futures. The only platform I have experience with is Etrade's TTTrader which does everything I need from a discretionary standpoint: one-click orders and basic market, limit and bracket orders. I have no need for technical indicators, I only use basic 15 and 30 minute HLC charts to get an idea of recent volatility and areas of recent support and resistance.
If I were to develop an automated system based on my discretionary methods, I know I would need to choose a different platform, such as TradeStation. ... But ignoring that for the moment, would there be any other reason I would want to use Tradestation's platform and/or brokerage service as opposed to what I currently have with Etrade?
Ignoring your potential need to be able to run automated systems, no, there is no other reason you would want to use TradeStation's platform and/or brokerage service.
If you are comfortable with the Etrade platform and comfortable with the commissions Etrade charges no sense in changing right now. Change only when you are ready to develop automated systems.
Thanks for the info. Another question you might be able to help me with. Tradestation's programming model is based on bars, the smallest granularity being 1 minute. This may not be suitable for me as I primarily cue off directional volatility. One of the things I'd like to do is track real-time movement on a smaller time frame: for example: take action if the price moves 25 ticks one-way in the past 10 seconds. Do you know if this is possible with their EasyLanguage platform?
"We are pleased to announce that we have integrated support for second-based intervals. in Chart Analysis, RadarScreen and throughout the entire TradeStation platform.
With this new functionality, you will now be able to specify custom second-based intervals in Chart Analysis, including multi-data second-based charts. Custom second-based intervals will also be available in RadarScreen.
In addition, you will see seconds displayed throughout the platform, wherever appropriate. EasyLanguage has also been enhanced, so that seconds can be referenced from EasyLanguage, with further EasyLanguage-related enhancements coming in the near future."
I have no experience with that time-frame in programming, but it looks like it can be done!
Have you tried NinjaTrader yet? The majority of traders here use NT and you owe it to yourself to check it out with a free unlimited trial until you like it enough to go live. Then you can purchase a lifetime license for $1K instead of paying those TradeStation monthly fees for a lifetime.
Thanks for the tip. No, I've never used Ninja. Don't know anything about it, but I'll keep it in mind.
I just completed opening a Tradestation account, so I'll see that through first. As I mentioned above, my only reason for looking at an alternate platform like Tradestation is to test out some automated strategies that I'm curious about. Otherwise, my plain-vanilla Etrade/TTTrader account works just fine for my needs.
I opened up a tradestation account, funded it with some testing money, learned EasyLanguage and started coding.
So, yeah it does support seconds bars, they seem to work okay without much strain on the system. Removing Print statements and setting Intrabarorder to false is probably the best policy there.
My needs are really simple - just a strategy that will recognize directional volatility and take action accordingly. I've already designed the program, tested it and it works as it should, so ... I guess that's that. It was pretty easy to learn and setup, so I'll just keep it running for that purpose.
This was my first exposure to automated systems and it was pretty much what I expected. I guess not suprising since I already am experienced in software programming for other industries.
Hi Plethora, I have been considering NT but looking at the cost for data I don't find it cost effective. If you have more details on this I would greatly appreciate it. I am looking to get the most tick/volume data available through a data provider. I tried esignal but they only provide 40 days and kinetick provides 120 days. Do you know of any longer providers?
as far as my experience goes, you can automate strategies to trade in tradestation using any kind of bars; tick, volume, range, kase, second, etc. thing is, intrabar looking only works for minute bars, any other bar type's information will be limited to the open - high - low - close points.
and the monthly fees, they are waived for anyone trading over 5,000 shares a month.
