The Death Of Tradestation

I have been day trading eminis for almost 10 years now and with the recent questions I have been getting I wonder if people really know my actual age or when I actually started day trading.  I have seen an enormous shift in this industry with one day trading company spawning various methods and strategies, both good and bad.

I started day trading at what would be considered the dawn of a new age when it comes to day trading eminis, click here to learn about the history of your emini forefathers.

I took out $25,000 in student loans only to lose that a month later while working $8 an hour at a full time dead end job, did I mention I was going to university full time? Fast forward 10 years and I am traveling around the world day trading, currently reporting from Rio De Janeiro.  You can check out my travel blog, The Wandering Trader.

I am telling you this background because when I first started day trading I didn’t have all the options that you have now.  There was only one day trading platform, Tradestation, and we all were coerced into opening a brokerage account with Tradestation Securities in order to avoid the $240 monthly fee.

IWe were glad to pay $125 a month “as long as” we opened a brokerage account

Just like Microsoft in its prime, Tradestation was able to charge extra for everything.  The brokerage firm charges outrageously high commission rates and some traders complete the minimum required trades every month in order to save $100.  The charting in Tradestation is second to none but the order execution and order dome are about as advanced as men’s boxers.

That’s right boxers, men’s underwear.

They change the colors, take off the tags, get a fancy name for a fancy technology and tell you it’s going to feel more comfortable.  Guess what? Nothing has changed, that is American capitalism to make you spend more money for boxers.

They do the same thing with men’s razors, I am waiting for the day when they try to tell us that 20 razors on one blade will give us the smoothest shave ever! The main reason I opted for laser hair removal, sorry Gillette, that isn’t the best a man can get.

Tradestation charts

Tradestation has overgrown into a heavy software program that does the same thing it did ten years ago, excellent charting and horrible order execution.  This is one of the reasons that NinjaTrader has risen and has taken plenty of business from Tradestation, you can read my review of NinjaTrader vs Tradestation here.

I support NinjaTrader for my training program and recommend that all emini traders start with NinjaTrader and skip Tradestation.  Well guess what boys? There is a new player in town and their name is Multicharts.

Multicharts was created by disgruntled men that weren’t satisfied with Tradestation’s corporate nonsense.  That is my version, you should check out theirs on their about section.

Multicharts accepts all coding from Tradestation (Easylanguage) and there is also a lifetime license option instead of only a monthly option with Tradestation.

I was referred to Multicharts by an old friend that day trades eminis out of Australia.  I am going to look into seriously getting rid of Tradestation for multicharts considering that Multicharts does accept the software language and it looks to be as easy to use as Tradestation.

Ninjatrader will still be my primary choice for all traders since you don’t have to pay for anything to get started.

Another thing that I found unusual was the awards that each company has won.  Tradestation throws on the front page of it’s website that it has constantly won awards from Barron’s.  Barron’s is a financial magazine, that can only mean a bunch of pencil pushers that sit behind desks voted for Barrons.

Multicharts on the other hand, has a slew of awards from Trade2Win, a massive day trading forum for day traders.  Now who would you want to believe in this scenario? Actual day traders that use the platform or pencil pushers?

One last thing before I end the Tradestation bashing.  As I discussed when I compared Tradestation vs Ninjatrader platforms, there is a very important feature in NinjaTrader that Tradestation does not have.

With Ninjatrader, you are able to replay the live market as if it was live, at any time of the day.  Not only is this a reason to not believe every trader that pretends to trade live on NinjaTrader, but also a reason to consider Multicharts since they do have the same feature.

Tradestation – Shame On You

Microsoft is being decimated in the mobile arena by Google & Apple (currently reading the biography of Steve Jobs, great so far), the internet explorer space by Chrome &  Mozilla, and being challenged with their bread and butter Microsoft Windows & Office with Linnux and Chrome.  Tradestation seems in the same path to have the same fate.

It is time to man up Tradestation, you already lost another customer.

Catching up with my old friend opened up a whole different can of worms other than just Multicharts, the ability to avoid paying exchange fees while you day trade eminis.

I  do generally save this kind of exclusive information for members of the training program but if you are interested in learning more about my Multicharts testing or even information about how to avoid paying exchange fees, sign up for my email newsletter below.  I will also give you access to the first two chapters of the curriculum.