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At 04:56 PM 1/17/2005, Jimmy wrote:
>I wish Wealth lab had started before Tradestation. Then it would have
>the advantages that Tradestation software does.
That is the beauty of software as a business. It is a natural monopoly. The capability grows as the cumulative man-hours of the programming effort that has gone into it from the beginning. Any prospective new competitor essentially has to put in almost as much cumulative effort in a much shorter period of time. That requires a lot of programmers who cost a lot of money so the potential return-on-investment for a new competitor is usually very low. It is called a high "barrier-to-entry".
>I don't know what Wealth Lab costs but the two or three thousand I
>have in Tradestation is peanuts but the thousands of hours of work
>make it hard to switch. It isn't like buying a new car. I keep cars
>forever. When they are worn out junk I go get a new one. Tradestation
>gets old and I just do a clean install. I really wish Wealth Lab could
>pull me over. There just isn't anything compelling to make me switch.
>My guess is guys like Bob Fulks and a few others on the list can make
>Tradestation do anything they want. Well now I think of it I can
>pretty much do anything I want in it.
That is the other advantage (and disadvantage). A programmable software tool tends to lock-in the installed users who are hesitant to throw away all of their old code. The disadvantage is that the supplier is frozen into keeping the new versions upward compatible to avoid alienating the installed base.
>Remember I trade discretionary because I'm unable to build
>a system I will actually trade.
Unable to code it or unable to precisely specify the rules you use?
Bob Fulks
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