what's the opposite of TS?

[tycon8]

Hi,
Why do I hate TS so much? I have asked myself the question numerous times. Essentially I think it is because it is backwards. Everything starts with the charts and you develop code from whatever 'datastream' happens to be open. If you develop something with a certain datastream in mind (say a ratio of smallcaps to largecaps) and the datastream inadvertantly changes. Oh well. Nothing will alert you.

It is all so, so wrong. So profoundly wrong that I don't even know exactly what would be right. But heres my best shot:

Does anyone know of a platform which starts with CODE and DATA and views charts as incidentals thrown in to show your work? Wouldn't it be great to just have a sheet which could sit anywhere and would SPECIFY which PARTICULAR dataset you wanted to open. And then would go and open it and do whatever else you wanted.

I am so frustrated with TS. I can't get behind this CHARTS FIRST orientation. Does anyone know of a platform which proceeds from CODE and DATA from which specific charts could be plotted if so desired???

Thanks much in advance for any recommendations.

Regards,
Tycon8

 

[JumpOff]

Everything starts with the charts and you develop code from whatever 'datastream' happens to be open. If you develop something with a certain datastream in mind (say a ratio of smallcaps to largecaps) and the datastream inadvertantly changes. Oh well. Nothing will alert you. ........

........ Wouldn't it be great to just have a sheet which could sit anywhere and would SPECIFY which PARTICULAR dataset you wanted to open. And then would go and open it and do whatever else you wanted.

Hi Tycon8,
Sorry it took me so long to post - I've been thinking about your post and I've decided I still don't understand it. Are you saying that if you develop some code for dealing with one type of datastream, you can't just do a search and replace on the instrument names (or use some global variable like 'the_datastream_open_in_this_chart_and_window_set') and use the same basic EL code for indexes, or an individual stock, or commodity? - I mean then you just tweak the parameters for that instrument or datastream?

If nothing else, isn't the visual development environment of EL, a simple way to make a template/outline of something you want to code in something in C++?

JO
(thinking I might want to be a tradestation user when I grow up...)

 

[tycon8]

reply, opposite of TS

Hi JO,

Thanks for your reply. I think perhaps you are right. There may be ways around what I perceive to be the limitations. What I object to primarily is the charts-first orientation. TS starts with charts, and most coding is done within that context. Strategies, as I write them, are snippets of code "inserted" into the chart. What I would like is something more like Visual Basic. VB makes no assumption at all about what you want to do. It's a blank slate. You might not even want a chart at all. Not even a strategy. You might just want to sample all of the days when the S&P (in particular) dropped 2% or more and dump hourly data for, say, Intel, into a spreadsheet for further processing. While this is surely possible in TS, it isn't easy, and the available documentation is limited. What I do like about TS is that things like line crosses, buy and sells, strategy testing, etc. are already programmed. But the fact that everything starts out with a chart and a particular datastream drives me nuts.

My impression is that there are two levels of users. I gather if you are willing to devote yourself to the study of TS that it can be wonderful. My problem is I don't have the time for that level of dedication, especially given how hard it is even to find advanced coding references. Right now I'm working in Excel, VBA and the built-in charting capabilities. Imperfect, yes, but at the least I can find books and code examples to help me. I'd eventually like to tie it to Access databases. But that's looking ahead a few years. Maybe by then I will have found what I'm looking for anyway.

Again, thanks for the reply. Maybe my frustration makes a little more sense now.

Yours,
Tycon8

 

[Zeos6]

Hi Tycon8,
Sorry it took me so long to post - I've been thinking about your post and I've decided I still don't understand it. Are you saying that if you develop some code for dealing with one type of datastream, you can't just do a search and replace on the instrument names (or use some global variable like 'the_datastream_open_in_this_chart_and_window_set') and use the same basic EL code for indexes, or an individual stock, or commodity? - I mean then you just tweak the parameters for that instrument or datastream?

If nothing else, isn't the visual development environment of EL, a simple way to make a template/outline of something you want to code in something in C++?

JO
(thinking I might want to be a tradestation user when I grow up...)

I am not sure if this is the right place for this question but is there any way to access the raw data and manuipulate how it is displayed before it plots on the TS chart? Curious.
Cheers
paul