I am using Tradesation 9.1 with Single Core for chart analysis as I have indicators that use an underlying DLL (ADE) which is single threaded. I was wondering if it is worth porting everything to 9.5 and make use of the multi core capabilities ? Is the performance worth the hassle and time involved ? Thank you for your insights.
Does the 9.5 fix any issues such as any memory restriction with the 9.1 and before. Has the memory space for TS software & indicators have access to more memory? Any idea?
I've noticed performance improvements on 9.5 during optimization (since it is now multi-threaded). I haven't seen any real performance improvement anywhere else.
The following user says Thank You to ericbrown for this post:
What about memory guys. Any idea ...I think the previous versions used up if I recollect 1MB of memory. So in my case though I have a 20GB or more memory since I run huge number of indicators which gradually causes a memory leak. For that reason I always have to open my station before RTH and close after RTH. I cannot leave it running for 2-3 days...tops 1 day to avoid an abrupt crash. Have you faced this...rather does 9.5 solve this.
I've not seen these memory issues on any version of tradestation and I've been running TS since ~ 8.0 or so. I leave my TS (9.5) running 24/7 and have done that for over a year without issue.
The following user says Thank You to ericbrown for this post:
I have seen crashes in my 3 monitor setup. I fixed this eventually by replacing the stock / crap graphics card that came with my HP PC with a Nvidia one. I have 16 G ram, never see more than 30% memory usage at any time. That being said i do restart my PC once every few days.
The following user says Thank You to rahulgopi for this post:
ELC 2.0 works fine and you shouldn't see an issue with your old code as it should work the same with the new DLL.
The functions remain the same, except the DLL in it is now called EasyLanguageCollection2.
Regards,
ABCTG
The following 2 users say Thank You to ABCTG for this post:
You could say that the ability to exchange data between chart and Radarscreen for example is a huge performance improvement. In terms of speed I haven't done any tests, but from what I noticed it's not slower than before.
Regards,
ABCTG
The following 2 users say Thank You to ABCTG for this post:
I'm still using TS v9.1 u29. I have a system I built myself in 3/2011: Asus Deluxe mobo, Intel i7 , 16 GB, 4 monitors, 2 nVidia video cards, recently upgraded to a 480 GB SSD. I have 7 charts and 1 RadarScreen. Windows Task Manager shows very low CPU usage 1%-3% for TS total all windows. I have 7 orchart.exe's running. View > Chart Analysis Preferences, "Multiple CPU cores" is enabled. I don't leave my system running overnight because I don't need to. It would also create too much wear and tear on the 7 fans, too much dust, etc...
I'm actually a little disappointed. I built this uber powerful system and I'm hardly using any resources. I think the total RAM TS is using is less than 1 GB. Keep in mind, even though TS is "only" a 32-bit Windows application, each EXE instance can still access its own block of 4 GB of RAM. Of course, each orchart.exe and even RadarScreen would never actually need 4 GB RAM.
I have never had any memory leaks with TS 9.1. TS is usually well behaved and I rarely have problems with it. I will not upgrade to 9.5 because it's still in Beta. I suspect 9.5 won't exit Beta until February or March 2015.
Perhaps you have a memory leak because you have a driver problem. You could also be running another program other than TS which is conflicting, such as a utility or anti-virus program. Although many claim Norton Internet Security is a resource hog, I have not noticed anything. Try using Sysinternals Process Explorer v16.04, a Microsoft program, to see which programs are using too many resources.
If you're using an AMD CPU or non-nVidia based system, you might want to switch to an Intel/nVidia based system.
The following 2 users say Thank You to techstocktrader for this post:
Hi everyone,
how can I achive to keep the body width of my candles in a tick chart slim with still plenty of space in between when zooming in as it used to work with earlier versions? I run the latest Tradestation version and Im just unable to get the same setup. The more I zoom in the more the candles get fat and don't leave any space in between. Much thanks!
Not sure if this is what you are looking for but have you tried the 'increase bar spacing' or the 'decrease bar spacing' icons on the tool bar.
If you don't have the tool bar visible at the top of your chart go to 'view' then go down to 'toolbars' then click on 'main' and then the toolbar will show and hover over the icons until you find the bar spacing icons and see if that helps.
Yes I tried this, but instead of increasing the space in between , the width of the candle body gets wider as well and the actual space stays the same. The result is more like a densed candle compound.
Yes, I am running 9.5 with the latest update (11). The only requirement for Zunaa on 9.5 is to install the latest ELCollections. Since all the old indicators are packaged with the old ADE functions, you may have to install some of the indicators from the ELD file after upgrade, making sure to unselect the MAP / ADE functions.
The following user says Thank You to rahulgopi for this post:
These are functions from ADE that are imported into the ELD files from Zunaa . If you have a spare laptop / PC, try it first before experimenting with the working one. Also, I found it better to have a fresh install of 9.5 rather than going thru the upgrade process from 9.1.
The following user says Thank You to rahulgopi for this post:
paps,
are you by any chance running Mozilla FireFox in the background? I was pretty sure FireFox had a memory leak. Yesterday I upgraded to FireFox 41.0.2 and now my Win7 Pro-64 Task Manager shows my Free Physical Memory going down to 57 MB out of 16382 MB.
You must install the Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Unfortunately, you cannot install the WPT separately. It comes as part of a bigger package, the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8.1. The SDK also works in Windows 7. I'm pretty sure the SDK is fairly large, if I recall correctly. This is why I haven't installed it yet. I don't want any of the above programs to make any changes to my system.
hi,
i'm experiencing a lot of issues with Tradestation(equities) mainly due to platform (matrix and charts) wich "freeze" every single day during fast markets (usually the first half hour) and every now and then late in the morning and afternoon.
I have a CPU skylake i56500 (4 cores/4threads), 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, 1T HHD .....
It's really hurting my activity and the tech assistance isn't able to help me fix the thing....if something can be fixed.....
It is probably specific to your installation. I would uninstall and reinstall TS. If that doesn't work, check custom indicators you may be using that may be using a lot of CPU. With that CPU/RAM/SSD you shouldn't be experiencing any freezes at all. I would also monitor the Task Manager to check processes/programs that are using a lot of CPU.
(if you want to do a more detailed analysis of the processes I would install Process Explorer: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx ).
On TS I also like to clean the cache every week or so (under c:\Program Files (x86)\Tradestation 9.5\Program\Cache). Delete all files there, CAL_cache.clod can get quite large. Not sure if it's necessary with 9.5, but it was a common cause of problems on older versions.
I run TS in 3 computers, one more powerful than yours and two others quite less, and all work flawlessly.
Good luck.
PS: on another note, I have Task Manager running minimized in all my trading computers. As I run automated strategies, I like to just look at the bottom corner, and make sure the CPU is not maximized. Also, a quick access to all processes/programs in case I see something abnormal going on, by just clicking the small icon in my taskbar. You don't need to do this, I just got used to this extra 'assurance'. Below you have instructions to have Task Manager started with Windows 10.
TO START TASK MANAGER MINIMIZED ON WINDOWS 10:
1. open task scheduler directly
2. create basic task
3. name it, describe it
4. trigger: when i log on
5. action: start a program
6. program: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start /min taskmgr.exe
7. click "yes" when prompted to put "/c start..." as arguments
8. check "open the properties..."
9. check "run with highest privileges" , check "Hidden", Configure for Windows 10
The following user says Thank You to dstrader for this post:
I have had many conversations with level 2 support when i ran into the issues. But at that time also was running in plus of 25+ charts and many indicators. There are some issues with memory....but the problems i was having could also be due to some of the indicators and the way they were written.
I currently run not more than 4 -6 charts on TS now and still on 9.1. Dont have any issues currently.
thanks for the advices!
I already clean my cache and I monitor the TM. Once thing i've noticed is that CPU usage never exceed 30/35% during fast market, so I don't really know why it freeze al the time.
I'll try to reinstall TS since i'm experiencing problem to work offline too...
Another idea that just occurred me, how fast is your internet speed and how reliable?
I also run a little application called "Net Uptime Monitor" ( https://netuptimemonitor.com/ ) in all my computers. This little app notifies me if I get any disconnection even for few seconds. If you have intermittent or slow internet connection you may experience freezing issues (btw, I'm assuming you are not using Wi-Fi, if you are, this is a no-no as disconnections and changes in download speeds are common).
Another little application that I run is "Network Time Synchronization" ( NetTime - Network Time Synchronization Tool ). For a trader it's important your time is correct and synchronized all the time some platforms don't like if the time is not correct (Market Delta is a good example, you will start to experience delays on MD if you don't have your clock synchronized).
With this 3 apps: Task Manager, Net Uptime Monitor and Network Time Synchronization, you can identify any problem quite quickly. At least in my experience...
The following user says Thank You to dstrader for this post:
I would need a little more information, such as which Windows are you running? I assume it is Windows 10 since you have a Skylake CPU. I am still running Windows 7-64 and TS 9.1. I have no plans on upgrading since W7 is more developed than W10. TS 9.5 is still in development which is surprising. 9.5 has Portfolio Maestro included free which I would like to test.
When TradeStation freezes, is it the entire program or just the matrix and charts? After TS freezes, when you click on it, does Windows give you an error message such as AppCrash or AppHang? Since I have W7, your W10 behavior might be slightly different. Just as an experiment, try leaving TS running for 15 minutes and see if if unfreezes. What is your CPU usage and Free RAM when it freezes?
I assume your TradeStation is installed on the SSD so waiting for the HDD is not an issue. What is the brand of the SSD you are using? What is the S.M.A.R.T. status of the SSD?
dstrader and paps have given good tips. I have some general advice for you: 1. The first thing I do when I build a new system is run MemTest86. MemTest is a RAM tester which runs outside of Windows which is what you want. Install MemTest on either a CD or USB flash stick so you can boot and run 3 passes from it. This is generally the first thing you do whenever you receive a new PC system. Periodically, perhaps once a month, rerun MemTest with 3 passes to ensure there are no new RAM issues because they can crop up.
__If your RAM fails MemTest, you must immediately replace the faulty RAM stick. Since you probably have 2 RAM sticks, if one if bad, determining which is the faulty one will be bothersome. Although you do have a 50/50 chance. If you have a bad RAM stick, you will usually get the classic W7 BSOD (blue screen). I don't know if W10 still has this. Be sure to use an anti-static wrist strap when working on your PC. If your RAM fails MemTest, you do nothing, and you receive BSOD's (blue screens), your Windows Registry may eventually be corrupted. There is no remedy for a corrupted Registry other than full Windows re-installation. This happened to me in 2012. My RAM passed MemTest then, without my knowledge, failed months later. Test your RAM soon and then monthly.
2. As paps mentioned, a good prevention would be to simplify your TradeStation. Remove any exotic indicators you are running. I once used someone's free trendline trading strategy I downloaded from the TradeStation Forum. It caused TS 9.1 to crash so I removed it.
__I am currently only running TS's built-in indicators. I have not yet implemented any TS Objects such as PSP. I plan to soon and hope it does not cause problems. During trading hours, on my 4 monitors, I have 4 TS *.TSD desktops which have 21 *.TSW Workspaces running. RadarScreen is tracking 250 stocks at 5 second interval bars. I have around 18 charts open. The initial 5 minutes of i7 CPU usage after TS startup is 25% but then settles down to 1-4% after all of the RadarScreen rows have been calculated (filled). RS has 1 Workspace with 2 windows, each with 250 rows, and is using my own EasyLanguage custom indicator which I wrote. With my 16 GB RAM, I noticed that both TS 9.1 and Mozilla FireFox, either separately or together, can reduce my Free RAM down to 1 GB. This can slightly reduce performance. My 2011 mobo is using dual channel native 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM and not quad channel DDR4 RAM. Using native 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM with the Intel XMP spec caused RAM failures (detected by MemTest), with Blue Screens in W7, so I switched to 1333 MHz.
3. Too many programs or conflicting programs:
__a. If you purchased a complete system, try uninstalling programs you don't need.
__b. Using the W7 Services listing, I set to "Manual" from "Automatic" several services. This prevents services from automatically loading on startup but will load if you need them. Do research before making any changes. This is advanced system tuning. When in doubt, make no change.
__c. Using Windows Sysinternals Autoruns, you can prevent programs from loading on startup instead of completely uninstalling them. Again, do your research.
4. dstrader mentioned using Wi-Fi is probably not a good idea unless you have a very stable Wi-Fi Netgear router as I do. However, my big desktop system uses a CAT5E cable, not Wi-Fi. Our laptops, which are not TS, use Wi-Fi. You mentioned this freezing occurs even offline so this is probably not the problem.
5. If you are using TradeStation 9.5 and the problem continues, try switching to 9.1 Update 29. Remember, 9.5 is still in development.
6. Because you are probably using Windows 10, it could be a driver problem. Because I am running 2 different older nVidia video cards, after I upgraded to nVidia v341.44 from v314.22, I would get an intermittent systemwide 1-2 second stutter or pause (freeze). After I reinstalled v314.22, the problem went away. I don't play video games so using the older driver is not a problem.
__Many people have reported video driver problems in Windows 10. As a last resort, if everything above does not work, try upgrading your video drivers. I do not recommend using Windows Update if they are there, especially if you have an nVidia card. If you have a laptop, call your laptop tech support and ask them where they are. If you have an nVidia card, this is the correct location to find and download it.
You are right. Win7 was my first choice but here in Italy it's not available anymore so i'm running a Win10 system
I've found Portfolio Maestro just another non-essential toy, but i don't need it and I don't use it so it's only my subjective honest opinion
All the platform and it's objects freeze
Whan TS freeze, just freeze and clicking on it produce nothing...it's just freezed
When it freeze, all the system freeze...so the CPU accordingly with the Sysinternal could be from 4% to 30%. When it unfreeze, i can see the CPU usage go to a lower level from an undefined point to 10%/4%
SSD = OCZ ARC 2.5" 240GB 480MB/s - 430MB/s SATA3
Memtest it's clean. I do periodically (usually during week-ends) to run the test for 15/18 hours.
I will check it but i do not use lot of indicators and the only one from TS forum it's the only available (in fact it's been developed in 2003 and there's not anoteher version....and tech support point me to the indicator....)
I have 3 monitors with 3 desktops with a total of 8 workspaces running.
I do not use radarscreen.
I have usually 16 to 20 charts open.
CPU always seems it works between 4% and 20/30% with a lot of spikes during the day. However the DRR4 16GB RAM usage is sitting between 10% to 15%
I do not play videogames too. the desktop it's dedicated exclusively and only to trading. I don't neither surf the net with it.
I really appreciate your comments and i want to thank you and @dstrader and @paps for your time and your committment in trying to help! Keep the good job guys! I'll keep you posted and I'll try to do the same with others.
it actually might not be also due to too many charts though when i had spoken to level 2 support they asked to reduced charts/desktops/work-space.
it however maybe multiple indicators and especially if they came from different vendors. I used to use indicators from 5/6 vendors and few i built. i now have only 2 vendors which maybe further reduced to 1. many of these indicators have been built with 9.0 and 9.1 in mind. If someone does not tweak and find out what is necessary for these to work in different versions of TS may experience these crashes. some of the indicators i use gave Millisec timestamp when tradestation did not support this so for me it was indicator clash am sure.
i dont think its a case of radarscreen. Am currently also a very heavy radarscreen user. With mimimum of 2 radarscreens if not 3 running every day as dump a ton of data for EOD.
For option analysis, option combination execution, and commissions, how would you compare Trade Station with Think Or Swim? Is one noticeably better or worse?
Thanks for your response. Last year I used solely TOS for option trading, and commissions ate up 15% of my
gains. I did OK but did not like TOS commissions. And as a result my questions related to Trade Station.
Welcome. I have an OK commission structure with TOS ($1.25 per contract) so it isn't too bad with them. The analysis capabilities and other functionality of the platform keeps me there.
I did take a look at TradeStation, and their option analysis for equity options is very appealing. But their option analysis for
futures options which uses Futures + is abysmal. (If I am not mistaken.) Also there is a $99 inactivity fee.
So I would have to give TradeStation a thumbs down. Are there any other choices that are in the same league with TOS?
Thanks again.
You should not give them a thumbs down, because one of the better platforms out there.
the $99 dollar could be avoided by trading ONLY 10 round turns.
We carry trade station, and we could provide it for a few months without any charge if you want
to give it a try as far as execution.
Thanks,
Matt Z
Optimus Futures
There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email support@OptimusFutures.com
You are right. TradeStation is one of the better trading platforms, but not for futures options. Their futures options
analysis is on a scale of 1 to 10 a 1. Their equities option analysis appears to be very good.
Thanks.
Tradestation is the best 'charting' platform out there in my opinion.
I tried and currently use several platforms, but when I want to analyze a stock and draw areas of support, resistance, trendlines, etc. nothing beats Tradestation. It's my platform of choice for stock or futures analyses. Also, like Ninja there is a great number of indicators available which is nice. It's also a good platform to test strategies (on stocks and larger time frames I would say), easy to code, many breadth indicators, etc. They also have some great research articles on custom indicators and strategies, which I just love and will provide you with a myriad of ideas.
You can trade Options via CQG and a new platform called OptionsWorkshop: Option Workshop
We can hook it up via CQG,
Regards,
Matt Z
Optimus Futures
There is a risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email support@OptimusFutures.com
I believe it is a software that operates outside of the CQG platform but uses the CQG data. If you PM me, I will share a contact there.
I think I will start a new thread for this software because this is a TS thread.
Thank you,
Matt Z
Optimus Futures
There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email support@OptimusFutures.com
