Pat494 said:
Hi Leo,
I see you use TradeStation and it looks impressive. I've had a look at the TS website. Seems expensive at $99.95 per month rental. Am I right in supposing that this doesn't include data feed ?
According to the comments in the software section which may be out of date, the modern US system of renting half a system seems to be happening. In other words you have to keep laying out extra, for bits and pieces or one only has a useless half-system ???
Could you possibly be kind enough to just jot down costs plus costs per trade etc. ??
Ease of use etc.
Thanks Pat
Hi Pat,
You are right, it doesn't include data feed. BUT, it's not end of the world because INDU data is free, not just INDU, NDX, SPX are also all free and streaming live. So, if you wanna trade DJI CFD or use SB for trading cash INDU, then open an account and use their facilities. I am not promoting TS but based on what you asked I will do a brief analysis.
COST
If you trade 10 round turn contracts in the first month you get next month's fees waived. As for the costs, £1.20 per contract per side+ Exchange fees etc all come to $2.12 per contract per side. In order to qualify for a fee waiver 10 YM trades are required. Then you'd need live CBOT data to trade YMs. That cost $50 per month.
So, 10 x 4.24 = $42.40 for commisions + data fees + $50. TOTAL = $92.40.
Savings
That is cheap because you would have taken 10 x $5 trades during the month with 1 point spread. YM is quoted as say 10950/10951. Savings in spread is, let's say, 2 points per trade (normally 4 pt spread in CFD/ SB they quote like 10900/904, suppose YM is trading at 50pt premium. If your position is less than 1 week, I would say the premium is not significant ).
On the savings side, 2 x 10 trades = 20 points for a $5 contract, i.e, $100 in hidden costs of 10 trades. 4 point spread is effectively $20 hidden cost for a $5 CFD or SB position.
Bottom line
The results of 10 trades are not relevant in this analysis as you would be trading the same way. And the switching cost is is 'zero', except the wire transfer to US brokerage cost about £20. On the plus side, any paid data feed that you are currently subscribing can be saved, too.
Software
It is an open source software. On the basic level, charts are colourful, easy to customise. On the advanced level, you can create your own indicators and do algorithms etc etc. I wih I had used it much much earlier especially because of it's backtesting facility. It completely changed the way I trade.
There are some negative sides, last week, for the first time, I lost the connection to TS servers. Some complain TS data feed is slow.
Hope this helps.
till then.. 
