Does anyone here know how to disable automatic updates in TradeStation version 10.x? The only thing I can find in the help section is this message: The Update Manager is only available for users who have test versions of TradeStation.

I have had issues with TS erring when applying updates, so I would love to avoid this by disabling and only applying updates on my schedule. Any help is appreciated.

Currently there is NO way to block the updates for normal TS10 distribution. I have had trouble loading charts, loading finctions, when there is a pending update.
Usually, when there is a pending software update, some minor thing could lead to a crash. It's just too unstable for an automated system.

Also, if you force closing the the TS10 (when it's freezing), then it would have trouble loading charts if those charts haven't finshed loading when you force closing. I could only resolve the issue by completely uninstall and then reinstall the software.

I am not sure if this is a thing for the multicharts, but I have experienced so many crash for loading a couple of large workspace that I eventually decided to take the multicharts into consideration (in the long run).

I remember a workaround to the issue you described, to avoid the reinstall. I think I recompiled all studies via the TradeStation Development Environment, then I was able to run. I'm not using TS any more, but I know MultiCharts does not auto-install updates. You can stay on the release you want for as long as you want.

I recommend scheduling regular backups for both platforms. I lost some valuable work a few years ago and was never able to recover after a major TS crash.

If you find TS crashing, you may be running out of memory. TS is only 32-bit, so it has a limit (~2GB) to the amount of memory it can address. I don't know the upper limit, but I have had no such issues with MultiCharts (64-bit application).

Thank you for your tips. I actually lost all my personal indicators and strategies developed in a few months after a crash. Until then I didn't know that the indicator and strategy are not stored in txt file in tradestation (which means not retrievable by going into the TS directory). I currently just export as ELD files and keep sveral copies.

I am using a workstation with more than 10 cores (pretty mainstream specs) and 64GB ECC memory, so I think it's just TS software issue, slow on downloading data, unstable for processing large amount of charts, etc.

I am not fully convinced into migrating everything to the multicharts since it requires extra work connecting to broker's network, and configuing data streams. Yet, I am constantly doing research comparing each platforms.

Yeah, I had the same issue....could not get my work recovered.

You are correct, it is software. It does not matter how well spec'd your system is, TS will be capped around somewhere between 2 and 3.1 GB due to its 32-bit nature (I do not recall the exact number, but it is less than the 4GB overall limitation of a 32-bit program). That is one of many reasons I moved to MultiCharts.

In general, how did you find about the experience with multicharts? I heard from my friend years ago regarding auto-trading on multicharts, which could be confusing at the time. I am not sure how clear, easy and stable would be to use multicharts for automated strategies.

Could you share a little bit more about it? For example, could you just leave the software on there forever? How does it handle the disconnection issues? Thanks in advance.

I do not use auto-trading in MultiCharts (I did for forex for a while through OANDA, no issues). There is a trade-off with MultiCharts: you get a decent selection of brokers and data sources, but you have to make sure you have everything setup properly. So your trade-off is choice (MC) versus convenience (TS). MultiCharts support has been very good to us in terms of responsiveness. Choose your broker, choose your data source, then go.

As far as stability is concerned, it may have crashed once in 3 years, with daily use, overnight, etc. When my wife was using MC with Interactive Brokers purely during trial to check execution, there were all data disconnect issues throughout the day and the IB client (Trader Workstation) shuts down at midnight. All of that was on the IB side, not with MultiCharts. I only used IB with MC for system testing and charts, but never autotraded through IB. The OANDA trading was fine during the short time I did that. If you are running systems that trade multiple times during the day, the data feed from IB may not ideal. I cannot speak to connections to the trade server.

Personally I left TradeStation because my my took a job at a major brokerage, so that required me to close accounts at non-approved brokers (TS and OANDA in my case). I would have left eventually, due to a lot of the frustrations I have had with the platform, the customer service, and other issues. I have been mostly happy with MultiCharts, though I have used enough platforms to realize there is no 'best' platform.

MC has a learning curve, but PowerLanguage is mostly compatible with EasyLanguage. I was able to migrate most of my systems and just plug and play. I have found optimization to be magnitudes faster on MC, though I try to minimize optimization. The biggest draw was the lifetime license, versus the $149/month (or whatever they are charging now) for TS. TS is not worth $149, though I rarely paid that due to the frequency of my trading.

Again, I cannot speak to trade execution aside from OANDA. I trade a much slower frequency (daily and weekly) now due to some of the constraint I have being married to someone in the industry. I hope that helps.

Got it! That helps a lot. For TS, I never got any charge regarding monthly fee, I think it's free, at least for the futures trading, except I need to pay for real time data, which is trivial for non-professional.

Seems to be major trade-off for these 2 main auto-trading platforms. I may need to do more research then.

Thanks again.