Ameritrade StrategyDesk 1.0
Ameritrade has launched their StrategyDesk product along with their Command Center 2.0 interface. The new Command Center interface doesn’t appear to offer any new functionality, but just pulls together the previous features in a usable fashion, unlike the previous Command Center, which was worthless.
The StrategyDesk application is the exciting one. It appears that Ameritrade users now have access to a product that’s competitive with some of the direct brokers’ screening/backtesting products.
I’m not familiar with TradeStation syntax (or other similar products, for that matter), but this looks to me like Just Another Freakin’ Language To Learn. After all the different function and macro syntax in all the different spreadsheets over the last 20+ years, plus a few early stock-screening programs on the web which had their own syntax, plus Basic and Pascal back in the early 80s, plus HTML, CSS and PHP… I figure, what’s one more set of jargon in an already hopelessly cluttered brain? Just another pain in the ass, but very do-able.
Anyway, this thing appears to be able to do the important stuff, like if I want it to show me all stocks which have broken their lower Bollinger Band from below on daily bars, are within 1% of the 5-EMA on 15-minute bars, and have formed a doji on 5 minute bars with the last 5-minute bar’s volume being higher than the previous 10 bars. And to backtest this strategy over the period from November thru December of last year. Or whatever.
If you are an Ameritrade client, or are just curious as to what this thing looks like under the hood, here are links to the Formula and Syntax Guide and the User Manual for StrategyDesk 1.0. Being that it’s v1.0, I’m sure we’ll be seeing bug fixes and upgrades as more folks begin to use it.
Cheers.
LP said,
January 26, 2007 @ 11:44 pm
Ejoying the wine and freakin thinkin stocks? What wrong with you? Turn on Salma and keeping sippin.
Will said,
January 27, 2007 @ 10:25 am
..Sorry, just noticed that AMTD had finally “activated” this feature they’ve been touting for months, and couldn’t resist. I did have to type slowly, though, to keep from slurring my words
traderted43 said,
February 3, 2007 @ 1:20 pm
Unfortunately with StrategyDesk you have to provide a list of stock symbols for it to work with. You cannot just create a formula and say go get ‘em in real time. It would also be nice if you could move the windows out of the application, like onto a second monitor. It gets very cluttered with only a few charts open. I know it has the tabs at the bottom, but I like my charts always visible when I’m looking for a trade.
Will said,
February 4, 2007 @ 12:56 am
traderted43- Thanks very much for the input! I agree that the symbol lists are a pain, and if this is actually a work in progress (let us pray), it’s something they’ll fix. But for now, the ability to click and import all the symbols for the major indices is getting me by, as I’m just experimenting with StrategyDesk and not actually using it to trade.
This really should be called “StrategyDesk beta” and not v1.0, but as long as someone, somewhere is actually working on it, hopefully it’ll improve.
My current workaround for the windows “trapped inside the app” is to stretch the main app window across two monitors, which gives more room for the “intra” windows. And so far I usually find myself turning the chart window off entirely and using a different app for my charting. It’s just too clunky.
I’m also having major headaches with the backtesting Strategy Setup. They need to bring a stranger in and tell him to try to use it, then mention every time something seems screwy or out of place or missing. Then they should just sit there and take notes for an hour or two as he says, “What do I do here? Why do I have to click here then there? How did I lose that formula? Where’s the formula index? Why do I have buttons for ‘Save,’ ‘Add,’ ‘Apply,’ and ‘Ok’ all in the same area… could you make it any more obtuse?”
traderted43 said,
February 7, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
Yes, it is bit of a kludge but it’s free if your a TDA client so I cannot complain much. I do like QuoteTracker’s paintbars much better than StrategyDesk’s. Much more flexible. I am going to try out SogoInvest.com. They have a promo of $1 a trade for 90 days, and then a plan for only 1.50/trade for a $15 monthly subscription. Beats the heck out 9.99. We’ll see how trade execution goes, that’s what counts in this world. And I just love these dummyspots!!! BTW, nice site you have here. Cheers!