Aston01

Probably one of the biggest issues I have noticed is being able to get a decent broadband connection if you do any kind of short term trading. I have slowly been trying to work out the kinks, but there are definately certain things you take for granted and only really notice when you are somewhere else. One of the other things is screen size ... I use 2x - 24" IPS monitors at home and then have to adjust to using just my 15.6" notebook screen. And also what type of mouse you travel with ...you take for granted that surface you normally work on at home, but a lot of places use glass tops and any number of other materials ... I have both a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse and a Logitech Performance MX mouse that both work on glass. ...stupid things I know, but its amazing how it can create issues you weren't expecting.

Multicharts beats TS in the fact they offer access to multiple brokers ...not necessarily in regards to graphics. One other thing I did really like with eSignal was they gave you the option to hide the individual window headers until you moused over them...makes a big difference in how much less cluttered things looked. eSignal 11+ graphics example http://www.cybertradinguniversity.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product_full/eSignal_11_0.png TradeStation example http://www.tradestation.com/en/trading-technology/whats-new/tradestation-9-0/~/media/Images/TradeStation/Trading%20Technology/Whats%20New%20in%20TradeStation%209%200/Base/01.ashx

There are quite a few things I really do like with Tradestation, but like anything else if you use something frequently enough there are always a couple of things you would like improvement on. 1.) Multicore back testing - This can be just an annoying bottle neck that becomes blatantly obvious even if you are testing anything more than a moving average cross on tick data from a very limited time frame. 2.) Graphics - Obviously this doesn't effect the functionality which is the main reason for using TS to begin with, but after trialing the new version of eSignal for a month I have to say at first glance I thought I was taking a set backwards in some respects moving to TS. I know there a lot of hard core traders and programmer types out there that don't want to waste the resources on fancy graphics and don't think it matters. I am from the school of thought that thinks presentation is what draws you in and makes you feel comfortable ...functionality is what makes you continue to hang around. In that regard TS is a little behind the ball with their Windows 98 graphic styling . 3.) Broker options - There are a lot of positives about using TS as a broker, but with no volume breaks and over simplified commissions unlike IB and some of the other brokers out there it can get a bit annoying . Say I get a wild hair and decide I want to buy some OTM option contacts that are going for $.05 ($5 total) . With TS my commission each way successful or not is $1 ...on that $5 I am paying 40% commission before slippage. IB for example charges a $1 minimum, but after that the commission is $.25 per contract($.15 if you are regularly doing a lot of volume) To sum it up TradeStation $5 x 10 (Contracts) = $50 + $1 Commission x 20 (Round trip commission) = $20 = 40% commission (requires a 67% increase just to cover the commission) Interactive Brokers $5 x 10 (Contracts) = $50 + $.25 Commission x 20 (Round trip commission) = $5 = 10% commission ( $3 or 6% if your doing large volume) which only requires an 11% increase to cover Everyone is always concerned about draw downs, but such a substantial cost before slippage can really limit certain types of transactions I would consider doing through TS. I may be ignorant at the beginning and not think much of it, but when you start doing volume it almost forces you to leave TS for some things...which kind of makes wonder why they would want to drive you to use someone else as opposed to stay with their monopoly. From this aspect Multicharts does get a thumbs up over TS. BTW - I know there are a couple of offerings out there like TWSLink that let you utilize other brokers from within TS, but I haven't run across anything yet that seems to be kept up to date enough to feel secure that it is going to work flawlessly in the heat of the moment when you have a large position that you don't want any errors with. If someone has run across something that works well please let me know I would love to find a solution.

Lets clarify this comment as it isn't 100% accurate. TradeStation's charts support multiple cores which allow the workload of each chart to be off loaded on to different cores in a round robin fashion. ...but where most people seem to be truly salivating for multicore functionality is in backtesting, and this currently is not multicore. So if you are running 12 monitors and 15 workspaces like the guy that started this thread then the newer version of TS with multicore support probably is of some benefit. But if you are looking to back test all kinds of wild concepts with your new 8 core, Overclocked, Liquid Nitrogen cooled system w/ it's 24GB of Ram & 1TB Raid 0 SSD configuration ...you may be disappointed to see 1 core pegged in your task manager and the other 7 floating around basically at idle.

Does anyone know of a pivot support & resistance indicator that can take into account the strength of the support & resistance levels? I have been searching around and I can find discussion of the concept, but haven't been able to locate an example. The concept I am referring to is an indicator that takes various swing high/low pivot points and determines strength by calculating the number of times they have been tested and factoring in more recent data. " Another indication of how well the support and resistance levels may prevail is how recently they have been tested. The more recent any activity is, the more likely it is to hold up to further testing " If you have seen anything like this I would really appreciate the help ... I am trying to avoid reinventing the wheel if someone has already done it once before.

I seem to be having a little bit of an issue with my slope calculation and was hoping someone could double check that I had written it properly. The issue is basically that even with the slope degree input adjusted to extremes, some of these flat spots still trigger differently. If working properly the small transition in the middle should have stayed magenta as opposed to going green for 2-3 bars and back to magenta. Am I missing something in my code ? Here is a snippet of the EasyLanguage code in question. Inputs: SlopeAv(5); Vars; Slope(0); Avg = average( Close, length) ; Slope =(TLSlopeEasy(Avg,1,SlopeAv)); if colorMode = 1 then setplotcolor[1](1, iff( Avg <Avg [1] and (Slope < .01 ), magenta, green ) ); plot1 (Avg , "Avg "); Below is a snippet from the diagnostics file (area highlighted in blue is where the color shift occurs). Am I missing something ...seems like just the type of scenario I was trying to smooth. The answer could be staring me in the face and I might not be seeing it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1111214 1419Avg 3.48Avg[1] 3.51|slope -0.04|condition FALSE 1111214 1419Avg 3.45Avg[1] 3.48|slope -0.03|condition FALSE 1111214 1420Avg 3.42Avg[1] 3.45|slope -0.03|condition FALSE 1111214 1420Avg 3.40Avg[1] 3.42|slope -0.03|condition FALSE 1111214 1420Avg 3.38Avg[1] 3.40|slope -0.03|condition FALSE 1111214 1420Avg 3.37Avg[1] 3.38|slope -0.02|condition FALSE 1111214 1420Avg 3.36Avg[1] 3.37|slope -0.02|condition FALSE 1111214 1420Avg 3.35Avg[1] 3.36|slope -0.02|condition FALSE 1111214 1421Avg 3.34Avg[1] 3.35|slope -0.01|condition FALSE 1111214 1421Avg 3.34Avg[1] 3.34|slope -0.01|condition FALSE 1111214 1423Avg 3.35Avg[1] 3.34|slope -0.01|condition FALSE 1111214 1424Avg 3.35Avg[1] 3.35|slope -0.00|condition FALSE 1111214 1426Avg 3.35Avg[1] 3.35|slope 0.00| condition FALSE 1111214 1429Avg 3.36Avg[1] 3.35|slope 0.00| condition FALSE 1111214 1429Avg 3.36Avg[1] 3.36|slope 0.00| condition FALSE 1111214 1429Avg 3.36Avg[1] 3.36|slope 0.00| condition FALSE 1111214 1430Avg 3.36Avg[1] 3.36|slope 0.00| condition FALSE 1111214 1430Avg 3.36Avg[1] 3.36|slope 0.00| condition FALSE 1111214 1430Avg 3.36Avg[1] 3.36|slope 0.00| condition FALSE 1111214 1431Avg 3.35Avg[1] 3.36|slope -0.00|condition FALSE Any help would be much appreciated

Tams - I gave median a whirl and it seemed make an improvement in the smoothing without much lag...Thanks for the idea John - Interesting idea ..I'll have to do some more reading on it

Has anyone come across a good technique for smoothing the color defining transitions without disturbing the entry and exit points of blatant directional changes? I am sure inevitably someone is going to come on here and say that further smoothing of an MA will lessen false signals but delay entry, and I don't disagree. BUT due to the standard way of coding a color alternating signal line being an either or approach, minuet changes in the direction are approached as veritable True or False in nature. All of this ultimately allowing for what I personally refer to as micro chop or false signals. I have had some success in limiting the issue by replacing the standard price input with (High + Low)/2 as opposed to Close, as well as changing the number of look back bars from 1 to 2. { Color criteria } if (Value1 > Value1[2]) then SetPlotColor[colourDeltaBar](1, upColour) else if (Value1 < Value1[2]) then SetPlotColor[colourDeltaBar](1, downColour); I have contemplated using a percentage of variance or some form of a slope calculation to allow for a margin of error, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around which would be more effective and adaptive to various circumstances. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.