thinkScript on thinkorswim

[ctpelot]

Hi,

I am new to T2W and was trying to get a feel for how many people use thinkScript on thinkorswim to develop algos/indicators. Any comments on this matter/topic are welcome!

Thanks,
Carter

 

[hhiusa]

Hi,

I am new to T2W and was trying to get a feel for how many people use thinkScript on thinkorswim to develop algos/indicators. Any comments on this matter/topic are welcome!

Thanks,
Carter

I do not prefer either. TDAmeritrade charges $2.25/per contract for futures and futures options and $9.99/trade for stocks. That is insanely expensive compared to IB. Interactive Brokers charges $0.85/contract (<1,000 contracts/month) and $0.65/contract (1,001-10,000).

 

[systematics]

If you have sufficient account size and/or trading volume - you can negotiate your commissions down from TD Ameritrade list prices. The only trick - you have to do it for per instrument type separately, for example stock options, or futures, etc...

ThinkOrSwim is the best charting/analysis platform available to retail, while Interactive Brokers' tools are near useless for chart analysis, so I would recommend to get both ThinkOrSwim and Interactive Brokers accounts and use each for what it's best at

ThinkScript is very limited and you'd be better off downloading historical data from Interactive Brokers via API or one of the tools available on the market, and analyzing data in Python or R, or whatever other programming language you feel comfortable with.

 

[hhiusa]

If you have sufficient account size and/or trading volume - you can negotiate your commissions down from TD Ameritrade list prices. The only trick - you have to do it for per instrument type separately, for example stock options, or futures, etc...

You managed to negotiate their fees down IB's level of $0.005/share?

ThinkOrSwim is the best charting/analysis platform available to retail, while Interactive Brokers' tools are near useless for chart analysis, so I would recommend to get both ThinkOrSwim and Interactive Brokers accounts and use each for what it's best at

The native charting is terrible, which is why if you are good at programming or can pay someone to program for you, you can create your own. At least that is what I did. You can create your own front-end application instead of using their predesigned java platform. Java is considerably weak. You can cut out the middle man. The problem is that it will be GUI-less but will perfrom much better.

ThinkScript is very limited and you'd be better off downloading historical data from Interactive Brokers via API or one of the tools available on the market, and analyzing data in Python or R, or whatever other programming language you feel comfortable with.

 

[ctpelot]

Thanks for the information guys. I have negotiated my commissions down from TD Ameritrade's list rates. I also do believe it is the best retail platform given that I have no experience coding in Java or Python. My hope was that I could find someone fluent(ish) in thinkScript to help me with a basic strategy!

 

[hhiusa]

Thanks for the information guys. I have negotiated my commissions down from TD Ameritrade's list rates. I also do believe it is the best retail platform given that I have no experience coding in Java or Python. My hope was that I could find someone fluent(ish) in thinkScript to help me with a basic strategy!

What exactly do you mean by list rates? How are you paying per trade now?

 

[ctpelot]

hhiusa,

By list rates I mean the advertised $9.99 stocks and $9.99 + $.75 per option fee.
I am well below half of that on each of them.

 

[Hittfeld]

Just go to dough dot com, open a TOS account through them or (if you already are with TOS) give ToS a call and request the dough members special rate.

Regards

 

[hhiusa]

Just go to dough dot com, open a TOS account through them or (if you already are with TOS) give ToS a call and request the dough members special rate.

Regards

That is still too expensive. It should be around $1.00 or 0.05% commission.

 

[ctpelot]

Yes I realize this and that is why I am not paying these rates. Thank you for the help, but I am simply looking for a coder.

 

[hhiusa]

Yes I realize this and that is why I am not paying these rates. Thank you for the help, but I am simply looking for a coder.

What rates are you paying? A coder for what and in what language?

 

[ctpelot]

thinkscript - same as the title of the thread

 

[hhiusa]

thinkscript - same as the title of the thread

What are you paying for commissions?