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Bob, Doretta, TradeLab List Members:
Mark's recent comments have tipped the scale for me in terms of remaining
silent or speaking out. I feel it is an injustice to myself and everyone
else on the TradeLab list to remain silent any longer. My various comments
follow.
I would also like to formally request a refund of the money I paid for the
Snowbird seminar because it didn't come close to delivering what was
promised in the July invitation email from Doretta. Unlike Mark, I do not
want to waste my time with a beta copy of TradeLab. The seminar was a
tremendous waste of time and money. The organization and presentation of the
seminar was very uneven, sporadic, and unprofessionally presented. A great
contrast to many of Bob's lucid emails. Doretta, please respond privately to
me if you need information to credit back the charges.
To echo some of Mark Brown's comments, I also bit my lip by not asking for
my money back for the Snowbird seminar. I do not like being harsh to people
or burning bridges, but I believe the seminar and the TradeLab software have
been totally misrepresented. Like Mark, since the October meeting, I have
felt very bitter about paying for a seminar that didn't deliver what was
promised. The only good thing that came from the seminar was meeting many of
you. That was very beneficial.
These comments are from a business standpoint. Please don't misunderstand my
view of Bob and Doretta. I think they are fine people individually. I do not
think they intended any deceit. I think they are sincere people. I wish them
well. I just don't think a good job was done.
Other comments:
1. TradeLab doesn't come close to being as productive a product as
TradeStation, especially considering the feature set of TradeStation 5,
coming in January, 1999. Bob's criticisms of TS are very petty and pale in
comparison to TS's features that leave TL in the dust. TL is for a
programmer who wants to create a TS and maybe do a little trading. TS is for
the trader who wants to trade and do a little custom programming.
2. TL is much more like an API to create a trading program, than like
another TradeStation. For example, everyone knows how easy it is to position
an indicator in subgraph 1, 2, 3, etc., in TS. In TL, you have to hard code
your indicator to one of the specified subgraphs! If you have two indicators
both programmed to appear in subgraph 2, they both show up there,
interfering with each other! If you have two charts displayed, and want an
indicator to show up in subgraph 2 in one chart, and subgraph 3 in the other
chart, you would have to create two copies of the indicator, one to display
in subgraph 2, and one in subgraph 3. A good programmer could extend TL to
manage this process without creating multiple variations of the one
indicator, but it doesn't exist in TL natively, as it does in TS. This is a
very basic and necessary capability. TS has it, TL doesn't. This would take
an enormous amount of duplicated time for each of us to program TL to take
care of this basic feature.
3. There few planned sets of indicators in TL. There are 200+ in TS.
4. SciApp indicated how superior VB is over EL for programming indicators.
This couldn't be farther from the truth. Although I would agree that VB is
the next easiest language to EL for programming trading logic, EL is at
least an order of magnitude easier for what a trader needs. Trading logic
development in EL is much, much easier than VB. The concerns about accuracy
in EL, are a function of TS being a 16 bit program, not an inherent problem
with EL itself. TS 5, being a 32-bit program, addresses the accuracy
concerns.
5. For those advanced needs that go beyond EL, a user can program in VB and
communicate via DLLs in TS. So there is no real advantage for a trader to
use TL over TS. He or she will be much more productive in EL and TS.
6. TL has a long way to go before being as productive as TS, and when TS 5
is considered, TL offers little advantage over TS. Much more attention is
required to programming, which is much less accessible to typical TS
traders.
7. Many of the people at the seminar are very capable of programming TL, but
in my view would be much more productive in TS. I think they would be
putting much of their programming time in TL just bringing it up to the
capabilities of TS. Their time would be better spent in taking TS from where
it is and extending it through DLLs and custom indicators.
8. I think TL stands very little chance of being released and supported as a
commercial product, and that SciApp and the list member's time would be much
better spent in discussing trading ideas and implementing those ideas in TS.
9. I have no financial interest in Omega or TS, I just recognize it as
currently the most viable trading platform now available. TS5 will greatly
extend that lead. If another product takes that lead away, I will be ready
to move to it. TL will not take the lead away. Unfortunately, TL will not
even be a blip on the trading software radar.
Bob, Doretta, I sincerely wish you well. You have great talents that could
be manifest well if you went back to your original goal of extending the
capabilities of TS.
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