Features of the Tradestation Platform

[RichardCox 10]

Tradestation’s newest platform offering for the forex markets builds on some of the key features available in previous versions of the software and provides some new additions that enable trades to be set in slightly different ways. The Tradestation product offering has been one of the most popular choices with forex for some years at this stage, as it allows for an alternative to Metatrader and enables plugins and analysis studies that cannot be found in many of its industry counterparts.

 

The company’s newest offering (seen in version 9.1) aims to deliver enhanced efficiency in terms of both speed and power that can be controlled in a more intuitive fashion. While the platform does offer some very interesting features enables trade in other markets (the OptionStation Pro is a clear example) but on the whole the platform does feature some supercharged options that will allow traders to spread out their methods of regular analysis while having an interface that is interactive enough that it can be used by traders at all experience levels.

 

Charting Features in Tradestation

 

Technical forex traders tend to focus most on the charting features that are made available in any trading station and it can be said that the Tradestation offering does allow for analysis capabilities that are either not available or are far superior to what is seen in other platforms. Intuitive and highly customizable, the charts are attractively designed (when compared to some of their more basic counterparts). Here is a list of the available charting features:

 

• Beginner to Advanced Analysis Tools - Classical to Exotic Indicators
  
• Customizable Multi-time Frame Charts - Allowing for extensions of smaller time frames that are not typically seen
  
• Years worth of historical intra-day forex market data
  
• Show Me and Paint Bar features - allowing for improved visualization of possible breakouts and other market moves
  
• Intelligent Drawing Tools - creating the potential to view market activity in a more personalized manner.
  

 

Improving Chart Processing Efficiency

 

In terms of the company’s attempts to improve processing efficiency for more advanced technical charting analysis, traders will find the Multi-Core chart analysis feature to be a positive addition. Here, Tradestation is looking to make software that takes full advantage of the processing power that is seen in individual computers. When more complicated real-time charts are used for analysis, Tradestation will distribute power requirements across separate CPU cores.

 

This helps to reduce the possibility of trading delays when a bigger number of charts are opened (and possibly processing more complicated information). This also aids platform stability when markets experience enhanced volatility (during news releases, for example). It is nice to see a trading company look to make improvements in areas like this because to many of us it seems as though trading delays occur more often than they should and approaches like these will help to rectify some of these issues.

 

Optimized Strategy Backtesting

 

One of Tradestation’s aims with its newest platform is to allow traders to implement and focus on backtested strategies. Tradestation has made it so that backtesting procedures are easier to carry out for people that are not computer programmers and this will allow a greater number of traders to use Tradestation’s pre-built strategy components to test out a variety of different trading methods before committing to any one strategy.

 

Backtesting accuracy has also been improved, with the Look Inside the Bar feature, tick level testing, and limit order fill assumptions, which take outlying factors (such as commissions and the possibility of slippage) into account in order to get a more accurate assessment of how a strategy would perform under real market conditions. Multiple markets can be tested (using tick data or intraday data) using the comprehensive database of historical market information.

 

Once backtesting has been completed, traders are able to assess the strengths or weaknesses of individual strategies using the performance strategy reports that are presented with graphs and statistics that will allow traders to analyze their attempted approach from different perspectives and under different market conditions. These strategies are given pass or fail grades with the Walk Forward optimizer, which is an easy to read assessment of whether or not a given strategy is strong enough to survive under real market conditions over the long term.

 

Backtesting at the Portfolio Level

 

But since most traders to not simply trade on forex pair in isolation, Tradestation’s Portfolio Level Backtesting allows for assessments to be given to strategies that implement the use of positions in multiple markets at once. The latest version of Tradestation’s platform is also built for compatibility with Portfolio Maestro (a newer addition to analysis in the forex markets), with gives performance reports at the portfolio level, aids in risk assessment, and aims to optimize strategies focused on more than one trading symbol.

 

Fast Cache Data Retrieval

 

Traders using very short term strategies are often finding themselves in situations where any delays in computer performance can lead to losses or missed trades, and the latest version of Tradestation aims to load custom workspaces (which might contain thousands of symbols) in a shorter span of time. Here, Tradestation’s offering can be seen in the Fast Cache Data Retrieval feature which improves on previous levels of processing performance. Data retrieval can be accomplished in a fraction of the time that was needed previously and this will be viewed as especially beneficial to traders that are working on the shorter term time frames, when seconds can be critical when placing trades.

 

The Walk Forward Optimizer

 

As hinted at previously, the Walk Forward Optimizer allows traders to test potential strategy systems based on seen and unseen data. One of the biggest complaints that technical traders have when certain strategies are backtested can be seen in the fact that many of these tests fail when they are actually put to work in the markets. The reason for this comes with the fact that most backtesting is done using data that is built around one set of historical data that is used by the majority of platform testers.

 

Tradestation’s Walk Forward Optimizer attempts to build on this aspect of analysis by implementing a series of Walk Forward strategy performance tests that puts the strategy against market data that has not yet been seen. This is meant to add an element of unpredictability to these tests and to, hopefully, show how the strategy would react in scenarios that have not been seen by the market. Some will argue that this data has nothing to do with the actual market and should not be considered as valid when backtesting a strategy.

 

Others, on the other hand, will view these tests as a way of getting a leg up on other traders who are only drawing from commonly used price data.

Either way, it is clear that Tradestation is looking to take things a step forward in this area and the Walk Forward Optimizer is an easy to use tool that will allow traders to gain a pass or fail analysis of a certain trading methods critical performance criteria.

 

Conclusion

 

Tradestation still has a way to go in drawing traders away from its primary industry competitor (Metatrader) but the latest version of the company’s platform does offer some interesting additions to the typical market analysis that has come before this software was released. While some of the features might not be for everyone, the latest version of Tradestation is definitely worth taking a look at so that traders can test drive the applications under real time conditions.