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> ronin@xxxxxxxxxxx says:
>
> PowerST will not work on an intraday basis. It does not receive tick by
tick
> data from any datafeed. It will work on ASCII EOD data. However, it can
> receive systematic intraday trades created in TS (exported to it) to
perform
> money management tests on the system' results.
These statements are all accurate. You are simply summarizing portions of the
web site.
> Something Rina Systems' Money
> Manager already does. And at lot less than $5K per spftware ($10K if you're
> managing over $10 mil or so).
I know the Rina software only casually so there is some guesswork in the
comparisons below. If I am doing Rina an injustice in this comparison, I
apologize and hopefully someone will correct me.
+) PowerST contains an environment for programming money management rules.
The same way entry/exit rules can be programmed into TradeStation, money
management position sizing rules can be programmed into PowerST. From this,
the money management strategies can be historically tested.
My impression of the Rina product is that the software supplies certain
pre-programmed strategies they designed themselves, and end users can mix and
match, change parameters, that type of thing. This is radically different
than the ability to design and test your own money management rules. The
comparison is similar to someone who finds a charting program which has 5 or
6 built in trading systems you can mix and match, and says it is the same as
TradeStation. It's not.
In fact, I believe that PowerST is the **ONLY** product on the market which
has the ability to program money management rules. The only other possibility
is Trading Recipes, an older DOS program which was a groundbreaking program
for it's time, but I am unclear if it is even still supported. Furthermore, a
PowerST customer who purchased Trading Recipes and studied it in depth told
me that it lacked some money management testing features he needed. He has
since set aside Trading Recipes and is now using PowerST. That is a fact.
+) The specific types of money management strategies that PowerST can test
should also be taken into account. Some of the specific money management
testing capabilities of PowerST are unique in the world of commercial trading
software.
+) Since PowerST also contains a full trading rules programming environment,
it can work standalone (although, yes, this is currently limited to end of
day data). My impression of Rina is that it is strictly an add-on to
TradeStation, so you will never be able to get away from export/import.
Especially when getting into actual trading, traders seem to want as much
automation as possible, which PowerST is very good at with the ability to
define portfolios of markets and generate trade signals for portfolios of
markets. In a program which is only an add-on, export/import will be an
inconvenience forever.
Also, in addition to historical testing of money management strategies,
PowerST provides position sizes for new trades. In other words, similar to
entry/exit rules in TradeStation, with PowerST you can get not only your
entry and exit orders, but the position size of those orders based upon your
historically tested money management rules (I have no idea whether or not
Rina supports this).
Furthermore, when you start sizing your positions with money management you
will want the calculations to be from your actual account equity and
positions, not hypothetical account equity and positions. That is where the
PowerST "Trades Accounting" feature is necessary. I could go into more
detail, but I am starting to repeat the web site.
+) You also have to evaluate the quality of the product in general. Advanced
trading software is not like a Toaster where they pretty much all do the same
thing (make toast). The quality of software packages is extremely subjective,
and quality can vary widely. You cannot assume that PowerST and Rina are
equivalent any more than you can assume that TraderWare and TradeStation are
equivalent.
The thing I can say as a fact is that some current PowerST users did
extensive marketplace searches of other products, and ended up choosing
PowerST for it's money management capabilities.
> So I cannot see this as a replacement for TS 4.0. TS2000i.....
PowerST is only a replacement for the **system testing** features of
TradeStation. And at this time it is only a replacement for the system
testing features of TradeStation for EOD data. Support for intraday data is
expected in the future, at which time the EOD limitation will be removed. But
PowerST does not support real time charting, and may never support real time
charting. It is a more specialized program than TS, specifically devoted to
trading system and money management testing. Therefore the name: "PowerST:
The Power System Tester".
Let me also note that PowerST is not simply a **replacement** for the system
testing features of TradeStation. It has some important system testing
features beyond what the TradeStation offers. For example, the ability to
test against actual commodity contracts processing rollovers as would be done
in actual trading. Also, control over the accuracy of trade execution in
PowerST is more advanced than TradeStation.
> well, it's a
> piece of shit. So I'm pinning my hopes on TraderWare.
Ignoring the fact that the language is rude and inappropriate...
It is like saying Excel is a lousy word processor, or Word is a lousy
spreadsheet. They are different applications. But the web page does make the
point that if your testing needs are solved by PowerST, you may then have a
wider variety of real time charting programs to choose from since you may no
longer be restricted to programs which support both real time charting
**and** advanced system testing. I suppose a lot of it depends on trading
style.
I think TradeStation is so widely used because, despite the ongoing
complaints reported in the omega mailing list, the reality is that in the
past it has been the only option for advanced system testing. There are a
wide variety of real time charting programs around other than TradeStation,
but in the past they haven't matched TradeStation in system testing
capability.
If you are looking for a real time charting program to replace TradeStation,
PowerST is not your solution. On the other hand, if you are looking for
heavyweight systems and money management research capabilities, PowerST may
be of interest. As it says in the web site, if you are an end of day trader,
PowerST is a complete solution. If you trade intraday, you will also need an
intraday charting program. Some PowerST users are end of day traders who use
PowerST as their only software. Other PowerST users also own and use
TradeStation.
No other software offers the portfolio money management testing capabilities
of PowerST.
Bob Bolotin
RDB Computing, Inc.
Developer of "PowerST: The Power System Tester"
www.powertesting.com
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
847-982-1910
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