I was doing some research on seasonal trading since I want to try something a bit more long term compared to my regular scalping.
As I understand, most people here use either seasonalgo or MRCI. I did some digging and found some alternatives, and the one I like the most (by far) is this website called SpreadPlanner: https://spreadplanner.com/
I didn't find much online, they seem to be a very young company. In fact, if you go on their pricing page, they say that for now all accounts are on the free tier and can only access corn contracts (a bit like seasonalgo).
Anyway, is anybody aware of this website? Have you ever used it? I'm also curious to hear what's your current setup for spread trading.
Here are some screenshots for ZCU23-ZCZ23 (I don't think there is any problem posting their charts, I will remove them if somebody reaches out to me).
The thing I like the most is that they let you plan the trade by setting a stop loss and take profit as well. It's the only software solution I tried that lets you do this.
The following 3 users say Thank You to wavingman for this post:
I asked my colleague Mark O'Brien who is a seasoned spread trader to provide his feedback/input:
[10:47 AM] Mark O'Brien - Cannon Trading
I used your post to take a short tour of the spreadplanner.com site for the first time and it’s evident they’re just booting up, so to speak.* I recently registered with seasonalgo.com and have subscribed to Moore Research (MRCI) for over 20 years.* It looks like the spreadplanner.com site is somewhat similar to seasonalgo.com in that it includes a searchable feature for specific futures spreads.* We’ll see how they develop the site going forward.* My preferred set-up for trading is with the Gain Capital / StoneX trading platform.* You can place one-cancels-other (OCO) orders on exchanged-recognized spreads with a market order or contingent order and it can be linked to contingent stop and limit orders.* The platform includes built-in charts that can also chart spreads.* It’s also a free platform.*
PM with any questions about Cannon Trading (800) 454-9572 (310) 859-9572. Trading commodity futures, forex and options involves substantial risk of loss. The recommendations contained in this post are of opinion only and do not guarantee any profits. These are risky markets and only risk capital should be used. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
The following 2 users say Thank You to CannonTrading for this post:
Yes I think they just launched. I just received an email from them saying that the premium version is now live and that they are offering a 50% discount for their first users. I might try making an account tomorrow and see if I like the platform.
Another entrant to the spread analysis space is certainly welcome - it is an area that lacks much attention. To its credit, spreadplanner.com at least looks like an application from 2023. SeasonAlgo's design sensibility seems to have stopped somewhere around 2006. Meanwhile MRCI looks like it is still stuck in 1993.
As noted above, spreadplanner.com looks to be very much in an early stage of development. From what I have seen via the free account it lacks some basic functionality that I have used in Seasonalgo. At this level of functionality it may be premature to assume that a viable group of paying customers can be created. It may be worth keeping an eye on though, as it matures.
The following user says Thank You to cordoba for this post:
Hello @cordoba, yes the UI is definitely a breath of fresh air. I'm interested in your process for spread trading, what do you use the most on seasonalgo? It feels like I'm missing something, since I was able to do basically everything I did on seasonalgo using spreadplanner. I'm still not very familiar with this type of trading bear in mind.
Hello @wavingman. Elements of SeasonAlgo that I have found useful have included:
a) Being able to see the continuous chart for the spread over a long timeframe. This helps to determine where it is relative to potential extremes - rather than just a narrow focus on the given seasonal window.
b) Being able to quickly scan through the Strategies/Market Overview page to get a quick sense of where a given commodity complex is situated, beyond just a given instrument and expiration date.
c) Being able to set alerts and receive an email when price reaches the defined level.
d) Receiving emails reminding me of when a given entry and exit point occurs & when certain profit/loss thresholds have been reached.
e) The monthly calendar view that helps to keep track of what active & potential trades are upcoming in a given month.
f) Being able to see the spread of interest relative to its nearby peers. Spreadplanner seems to have this too, but its rendering of all spreads in one color doesn't help to easily differentiate them.
g) The Analyze/Fwcurve, Analyze/Contango and COT features - having such helps to provide additional data points to make an informed decision, rather than leaning too heavily on just the seasonal window.
h) The number of entries in the spread database and the metrics that can be viewed about their past performance. Right now, spreadplanner.com is just showing an entry date, an exit date and a win %. In contrast, SeasonAlgo backtest data helps to set expectation in areas such as how much drawdown I should expect during the trade's life, which in turn helps with risk management. Associated with this, I can query the SeasonAlgo database with certain objectives in mind e.g. "show me only trades that have a minimum of x days of duration" or "show me trades that have a risk-to-reward better than y".
i) Perhaps spreadplanner.com will have such but the example Corn spreads in the free version are confined to two legs. It is helpful in SeasonAlgo to be able to broaden the range of potential trades to include butterflies & iron condors, as well as to inter-market spreads.
j) The portfolio management capabilities. They aren't super sophisticated, but they are better than nothing.
Both SeasonAlgo & Spreadcharts.com very much lack decent trade planning. Both are confined to drawing a simple line in one direction and reading off the potential profit/loss figure on that line - that's fairly inelegant and clunky. So Spreadplanner.com is to be applauded for recognizing the need for better functionality in at least this one regard.
