TradeStation 7

[mmillar]

Following on from my last post, has anyone used TradeStation 7? They say they will have 10 years of US stocks and futures data available from June.

Is the data feed reliable?
What is customer service like?
What's the in-house brokerage service like?

Thanks

mmillar

 

[Naz]

Yes i use tradestation 7 for intra day charts only.The customer service is fine and the data feed has never let me down.

 

[mmillar]

Thanks Naz.

 

[Trader333]

When I contacted the UK agent for Omega I was told that TS7 is not available for sale in the UK. I do know a few people who have managed to get it but they also had a US based address. The reason given is that, in its realtime mode, it can give the equivalent of a recommendation to buy or sell and that contravenes FSA directives.


Paul

 

[mmillar]

Doh! Why does this have to be so difficult.

TradeStation answered my questions but never mentioned anything about me not being in the US. I'll ask them that specific question. I have a distant relative in the US if it comes to it.

Incidentally, what is that TradeStation are doing that that eSignal are not? There is no problem getting eSignal in the UK. To me they are virtually the same product - the only reason I need to switch is because of eSignal's lack of historic data.

 

[Trader333]

Hi Mmiller,

When I contacted Omega in the US they told me that I would be OK to buy TS7 even though I have a UK address but then told me I had to use the Omega agent who then told me I couldnt get it. So there is every chance you will be told yes it is OK in the UK until you come to actually buy it.


Paul

 

[mmillar]

I contacted TS in the US and their compliance department had a long list of questions for me. Waiting to hear now. I'll let you know.

 

[Trader333]

This seems a bit of an expensive way to get data to backtest. What market(s) do you want to analyse and how far back do you want to go ?


Paul

 

[mmillar]

Whoopsie Doo...
(this is easier to read from the bottom up)

I am pleased to tell you that you have been approved to continue in the account opening process. You may receive the platform on a subscription basis. In addition you may open a brokerage account and trade through us. Your friends may however been accurate. In the past we were unable to offer services in the United Kingdom as we were not registered to conduct business there. You may also keep in mind that Esignal, unlike TradeStation is not a brokerage company. As a result it was probably much easier for them to offer their services. I am attaching a link below to the account application forms. Feel free to print it out and fax it back to me at (954)652-5419. Should you know of anyone else interested I would appreciate any referrals you could provide. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Link: https://www.tradestation.com/pdf/futures/futures_individual_joint.pdf

Best Regards,
Matthew Aptman
Active Trader Sales Representative
TradeStation Securities, Inc.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of TradeStation Group, Inc.
http://www.TradeStation.com
Direct Phone: 1-888-223-9669
Fax: 954-652-5419

Local: 954 -652-7419

Email:[email protected]

-------------------------------------------------------

In answer to your questions...

1)My country of citizenship and residency is the United Kingdom.
2)I do not spend long periods in the US (only vacations).
3)Through Stock and Commodities magazine.
4)I have a trading account with Interactive Brokers.
5)I trade futures.
6)I would transfer approx $10,000
7)xxx, UK. Telephone +44 xxx
8)Individual account.

------------------------------------
Subject: TradeStation Response

I will be more than happy to assist you. However before I answer any questions, my Compliance Department has requested the following information from international clients interested in opening an account:

1) What is your country of citizenship and residency?
2) Do you spend long periods of time in the U.S.? If so, about how long?
3) How did you hear about our brokerage services?
4) Do you have any trading accounts in the U.S.? If so, at which brokerage firms?
5) What do you trade? Stocks, futures, options?
6) If you were to open an account how much would you be transferring to us and where would you be transferring it from?
7) Please send me your full mailing address and phone number so we can enter your information into our database.
8) What type of account would you be interested in opening? (ie: Joint, individual, corporate, trust, etc)
Regards,

-----------------------------------------------

I was looking into subscribing to TS7 but have just been told by some friends that TS7 is not available to UK residents because of UK regulatory requirements. Can you confirm if this is true. If it is, do you know why eSignal can sell in the UK but TradeStation can't.

 

[mmillar]

Hi Trader333,

I was paying nearly $150 per month to eSignal (until my recent reduced subscription ). I get superb charts and real time data - I love the program. But I was also supposed to get historic data and to be able to trade direct from eSignal i.e. automated computer trading. However, eSignal have failed to deliver on the historic data and the automated trading is feeble (the 2 commands it supports are 'buy' and 'sell') or it needs third party tools plugged in to get anywhere.

As far as I know my other choices are
1) a mix of SierraChart and VBA programming. I know others are doing this but I see it as a bit of a kludge (no offence to anyone) and don't want to spend my time messing around getting computer programs to work
2) Backtesting with TradeStation 2000i, but then having to rewrite my code into eSignal so I can trade realtime
3) Using TS2000i but getting a realtime subscription (from eSignal!) for it and plugging in third party auto trading tools
4) getting TradeStation 7.x and having it do everything for me.

TS7 will costs $100+exchange fees per month, so about the same as I'm paying now - I don't consider $100+ per month to be a big deal for the tools of my trade, especially as everything is included for this.

I'm way open to suggestions so any other ideas you, or anyone else, have I will greatfully accept.

cheers

mmillar

 

[Trader333]

This is pretty impressive, you have succeeded where I was unable to and I think it was all down to your perserverence. This has now got me very interetsed as well. I wonder how much their Level II platform is as this would be of most interest to me so I will check it out.

On the point about esignal and TS2000i, You can use the esignal feed straight into Tradestation so any studies you have written would not need to then be put back into esignal. Also it will all depend on which markets you want to backtest.

Cheers


Paul

 

[Trader333]

Mmiller,

I have just checked out the offer and read the following:

What is included in the monthly Base Platform Fee?

For only $99.95 you'll receive access to TradeStation 7, delayed data for all major U.S. Equities and Futures exchanges and streaming News with COMTEX Newsroom FrontPage, COMTEX Newsroom Top Headlines, COMTEX Newsroom Financial Updates, COMTEX Public Companies, Custom Wires, BusinessWire, PRNewswire, Nelson's Broker, Summaries and SEC Filings.

This is not a realtime package at this price as the data is delayed so bear that in mind. Whereas with esignal and TS2000 you can get realtime charting and historical data which can be downloaded to your pc FOC (not from esignal) but from a dedicated server that is used exclusively with TS2000i

Cheers


Paul

 

[mmillar]

I think that is where the exchange fees come in. If you pay the exchange fee then you get that service real time.

I'm not going to sign up to TS7 just yet anyway. I'm waiting for them to release their 10/20 years of historical data first. I'm getting an old copy of TS2000i in the next few days so I'll start with that and see how it goes. Ultimately I need a real time charting package, a back testing package and an automated trading package. TS7 provides these all in one, but there are other solutions. I will keep looking at these other solutions for now.

Thanks to all who have replied and PM'd.

Cheers

mmillar

 

[mmillar]

Trader333,

Sorry, I missed your first post.

From their fees page it looks like Nasdaq QuoteView is $10 per month, though this seems remarkably cheap to me. Maybe if you contact that guy at TS he can confirm/deny this.

eSignal -> TS2000i -> TradeBolt -> IB is my other option. I have eSignal and IB and will be getting TS2000i shortly so this maybe the simplest option for now. Though being an ex techie this type of software chain scares me.

Clearly TS7 only has access to US data (no European stuff) but this may actually be good for me. I'm always 'fiddling' with European futures and my US trading always ends up subsidising my European losses.

Cheers

mmillar

 

[fowkesp]

mmillar,

Also bear in mind that TradeStation 7.1 (only just out) is the first release that allows auto-trading of futures. Prior releases wouldn't auto-trade futures, so might be best to check the TradeStation Support Forum http://www.tradestation2000i.com/ to see if it all works Ok before trying it in anger.

Paul

 

[mmillar]

Hi fowkesp,

You're back! I noticed your previous posts had been deleted.

If I go with TS7 it wont be until 7.2, but you're right, it does look like it is all new so maybe something to avoid until they iron out the bugs.

Thanks

mmillar

 

[fowkesp]

mmillar,

Now you've got me confused Still, it was my turn.

I think you'll find my previous posts are in the "Direct Access and Stock Brokers" thread, or whatever it is called.

Paul

 

[mmillar]

having the same conversation in three threads and a large dose of hangover :| you're right of course.

 

[Chuck_T]

eSignal & Integrated Brokers.

mmillar,

We have some new features coming with eSignal 7.4 in July for better integration of trading. We have a new customized order entry feature where the user can design his own layout and buttons along with hot keys.

We also work with multiple direct access brokers, a few new ones will be released with 7.4. The current list is here:

http://www.esignal.com/partners/brokerages/default.asp

Chuck
@eSignal

 

[mmillar]

Chuck,

My biggest problem is that eSignal were supposed to be offering two years of historic data - but it was all lost in a server crash. 60/100 days of data is not enough to backtest on and I'm not prepared to wait two years for you to collect it all again. No matter how good EFS is at backtesting or eSignal is as a product, if you don't have any historic data then it is all pretty academic.

Regards

mmillar