Take no hesitation to accept TradeStation'
I primarily use TS for their charting, although I do my futures trading with them and have no complaints with their brokerage. Their platform is solid and reliable, I get good fills on trades, and the costs are reasonable (I do enough futures trades to get the platform for free).
If you are interested in programming, their best strength is their EasyLanguage mechanism for defining and developing automated systems and back testing of strategies. Their tools for answering 'what if' questions are pretty cool. There's a large pool of other users and companies that provide 3rd party software that runs on TS. Other firms have tried to imitate TS, but it's still the industry leader.
They consistently get top marks in the Stocks and Commodities magazine annual survey, not only for retail but institutional users. TS usually exhibits at such events as the Traders Expo where their people have been knowledgeable and helpful. Every month they hold many webinars on various aspects of TS to get folks up to speed.
Now after all of this you probably think I feel TS can do no wrong. Well, I confess I have to hand the trophy to TOS for their options analytics. TS has all the usual options tools, but it's not as robust as TOS. But as I've come to learn, no one firm does everything perfectly, so pick the strengths of each.
Bill
From: Joey Huckabee <trading.ocyg@
To: OptionClub@yahoogro
Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 2:36:21 PM
Subject: [TheOptionClub.
I have always considered using Tradestation instead of TOS and IB because it is a balance between the two brokerage firms. I have not moved to trade station because of the cost of the platform, but found myself thinking about the requirements to get the platform free. one of the requirements is 50 options contracts per month; I think I did that is one butterfly last month!
So before I go running into Tradestation'
Anyone have a few thoughts?
Joey
On March 25, 2010 at 5:18 PM Tom Batchelor <tom_batchelor@
Fred,
How did you here about this; I though that they were keeping this very limited until it was launched for real. Were you part of the Beta Test?
I'm actually speaking about my strategies in DC in April; if you are available to come.
To: OptionClub@yahoogroups.com
From: fred.hawkins@edtinc.net
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:53:55 -0400
Subject: RE: [TheOptionClub.com ] The Problem With Chasing GOOG
Rickey,
I trade stocks and options and you are right on about GOOG. FYI TradeStation just launched a new strategy network site where you can subscribe to automated trading systems. Although there seems to be forex, futures, and stock programs on there, the Goog program seems to be one of the best programs. I am not selling anything I just subscribed and have made a bunch of money. There are tons of programs on there. I think the Goog program I trade has made over 600% so far. The data is right there to verify. If you are interested, here is a link to the new TradeStation site.
https://strategynet
work.tradestatio click on view all strategies. Some are very good and some aren't. There are a bunch of them now. Apparently they just launched in March and are planning a big announcement in April. I trade the Firebird Goog program but there are many others too. I hate to sound like I am advertising but when you mentioned the Goog beta I started thinking about it. I thought only hedge funds had systems like this and a few off name sites but it looks like one of the big platforms stepped up and offered them. Does anyone know of any reputable platforms that do this? Any that trade options automated? I use Tradestation to trade options due to the low commissions per trade and TOS to analyze and adjust option positions. Probably crazy to have both but it works for me.n.com/StrategyNe tworkStore/ Default.aspx
Happy trading!
Fred
From:OptionClub@yahoogro
ups.com [mailto:OptionClub@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Ricky Jimenez
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 11:35 AM
To: OptionClub
Subject: [TheOptionClub.com] The Problem With Chasing GOOG
GOOG has a beta of 1.08. But the reason it attracts both stock and
certain options traders, I think, has to do more with its volume and
for options, the ratio, strike distance / stock price = 10/545 =
.018. So a less than 2% move in the stock price can get you to
another strike. That is comparable to a 55 dollar stock with a big
volume and a strike distance of 1. IWM is the only one I can think of
off hand. Can anybody tell me if any available screener finds others?
However, taking advantage of that to make a profit by often adjusting
GOOG as it moves, requires quite a bit of skill, which I don't possess
currently, and I will show you the mixed results of my March paper
trade. I have reported on all but the last of these adjustments
before but I will repeat them for viewing convenience. I have also
attached a graph of all 6 trades. They are named by the date and
approximate GOOG price when the trade was made.
On 2/22 GOOG at 545:
-2*530p +2*540p +2*550c -2*560c, (6.30, 10, 9.50, 5.80).
Brown
On 2/25 GOOG at 521:
2*510p -2*520p, (6.90, 10.50);
2*540c -4*550c +2*560c, (4.80, 2.65, 1.50).
Result: 2*510p -2*520p -2*530p +2*540p +2*540c -2*550c.
Purple
On 3/04 GOOG at 565:
-2*510p +2*520p +2*530p, (.60, 1.10, 2.00).
Result: 2*540p +2*540c -2*550c.
Yellow
On 3/05 GOOG at 565:
-2*540p -2*560c +2*570c (2.00, 9.70, 5.20).
Result: 2*540c -2*550c -2*560c +2*570c
Green
On 3/10 GOOG at 575:
-2*540c +2*550c +2*560c -2*580c, (30.40, 21.70, 13.60, 3.40).
Result: 2*570c -2*580c.
Red
On 3/11 GOOG at 580:
-2*570c +4*580c -2*590c (17.70, 11.50, 6.70).
Result: 2*580c -2*590c.
Blue
After 3/11 GOOG fell back to the 560s and expired on 3/19 at about
560. After the last trade, I didn't see how to get back into the
sweet zone without taking on more risk so I simply gave up, knowing
that I wasn't going to lose much. Now it could be argued that on
3/10, translating the condor to the right could have been done with
little more expense than going to the bullish spread and the condor
was somehow objectively better. I wish I could quantify that. By the
way, each of these trades costs about $14 in fees and commissions at
Options House.
Perhaps the best trading philosophy to take is that once you have a
risk free or high reward to risk position, just don't touch it, even
if the market moves away. If you open several trades each month, and
turn each into a high reward to risk, chance will cause a few to end
up close to the max reward area and you will end up with a profit for
the month.
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